


Heirs to Something Greater

by g_afy03



Series: Heirs to Something Greater [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, F/M, Gryffindor, Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Hufflepuff, Magic, Original Character(s), Quidditch World Cup, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Triwizard Tournament, Wands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 60,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27224515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/g_afy03/pseuds/g_afy03
Summary: This story takes place in Harry Potter the Goblet of Fire. What happens when Adeline and her best friend Juliet have to move from Ilvermorny in America to Hogwarts? What or who are they hoping to run from and will they be safe in a new environment? When Cedric Diggory takes an interest to Adeline Finley, will they be able to form a relationship before the end of the year when everything changes?My close friend C is writing the same story but from Juliet Bloom's Perspective. We will update at the same time within the week. Make sure to check out her story where important things will happen there too!The only characters I own are Adeline Finley, Juliet Bloom, Easton Parr, Diana Lueur and the parents. JK Rowling created the all the other characters.
Relationships: Cedric Diggory/Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Heirs to Something Greater [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987606
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. Introduction

This is the story of Adeline Finley and Juliet Bloom, told by Adeline Finley herself. Adeline and Juliet have been friends since the very beginning of time. Their parents went to Hogwarts together and stayed friends ever since, despite all the odds against them. When Voldemort was threatening the safety of their parents and their children, they moved to America. This is where Addy and Jules grew up together, eventually getting accepted into Ilvermorny at 12. One day, death eaters find the Finley's home and they are forced to make a decision. The two families decide it may be safer to send them somewhere that will always give help when asked; Hogwarts. The last thing Adeline expected was someone like him to be interested in a girl like her. Make sure you go over to Juliet's POV RIGHT HERE: (I’ll insert the link to your book)  
SET IN THE FOURTH MOVIE EXCEPT HOGWARTS STARTS AT TWELVE SO EVERYONE IS 16.  
14+ if possible, TV14-TVMA

Introduction  
Hello, and welcome to the world of Adeline and Juliet! As you may already know this series is a little bit different than some you may read, and if you don't? Don't worry I'll let you know the exciting part right now. This book is going to be book 1 of a series of 3-5 books (undecided) FROM Adeline’s perspective! My good author friend, C will be writing from Juliet's perspective in separate books! Cool right? We think so. Of course, we know that comes with a price... a lot of the first chapters, the important chapters, and other filler chapters will be basically the same plotline but with different scenes/POV which can be a bit annoying to read sometimes. And we totally understand, because of this, we will add an author's note before each chapter that will state if the chapter is the exact same, but with a different POV! That way you can choose whether you want to read the chapter again (this is what we recommend because every single chapter will be as different as possible and will have some important details for later in the story) or just read your favorite character's POV, vote, and skip to the next chapter! As the books progress, the stories will become farther and farther apart because even though they're best friends, they will be having different journeys! Trust me, bare with the first few chapters and you'll see how much fun it will be to hear two different sides of one HUGE story at the same time! You can either read both, chapter by chapter, read one book and then go read the other, or read in whichever clumps you like! (We recommend reading chapter by chapter).  
Commonly asked questions:  
Updating:  
C and I will be updating every Sunday AT LEAST! We are very busy but working very hard to get chapters out to you as soon as possible, and we may release extra chapters throughout the week if we have time! We will be uploading each part at the same time so, if you wish to, you can read both chapters each week/day we release!  
What is the recommended age level for reading this book/ how mature is it:  
C and I decided that this book is better for 14+ but younger can read it if they wish. We will be keeping it as TV-14 as much as possible... but some mature scenes are obviously a part of this book. Mature scenes will have a warning in front of them and anything that may be triggering will be put in the authors note. This is not a smutty novel in that sense, but when things get hotter than TV14, we prefer you are 16+ when you read them. WE WILL WARN YOU BEFORE THE SCENE! There will be some TV-MA scenes, dirty jokes, mentioning sexual activities, etc. if you are uncomfy please don't read the parts we warn you about or don't read the book. If you feel that this series should be marked, "Mature" in Wattpad please reach out!  
When is this set:  
This is set during the fourth Harry Potter movie/ book, Goblet of Fire! But we have switched some things around so that the relationships and character dynamics work better. In this Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts doesn't start until the children are 12. This means everyone in their fourth year is now 16. (This is more appropriate for the relationships/language that occur throughout the book). The previous years have been the exact same plot and all the characters look the same as in each movie, they're just older. Cedric, Fred, and George have all been transferred to year 5 which means they are all 17. (At the allowed time of entering the triwizard tournament, Fred and George are 16 and not able to put their names in). This will not affect the plot AT ALL, as we have a plan. EVERYONE IN THE FOURTH BOOK/MOVIE ALL LOOK THE SAME IN THIS UNIVERSE, the only difference is the age. (As some of you may know, all the actors were older than 14 when they filmed the movie, so this is technically correct :)  
Although this wasn't filmed in 2020, there is 2020 humor, 2020 songs, and 2020 technology! It's just more advanced there I suppose!  
Okay everyone now onto the fun part... introducing your characters for "Heirs to Something Greater"  
The main OCs up first of course! We weren't inspired by any one person for these characters so instead? C made what she likes to call a "Character Vibe Board" to help you all picture the character's better!  
Main Character/POV: Adeline Rowan Finley  
Main Character: Juliet Lynn Bloom  
Next! The OCs we created, but aren't main :)  
Easton Parr inspired by Louis Partridge  
Ravenclaw. Friends with Juliet, Luna, and Adeline. Huge ego but it's not even close to how big his heart is. Kind of an Fboy.  
Diana Lueur inspired by... well, herself  
Slytherin. Best Slytherin friend to Adeline/Juliet. One of the most kind, and welcoming Slytherin's you'll ever meet. Don't ever get on her bad side though, she's not afraid to strike back.  
Parents: Elladora and Terrance Finley  
I couldn’t find any inspiration for actors who could take the role of Adeline’s parents so I will give a bit of detail about them, and you can use your imagination!  
Juliet’s Parents: Charles and Lynn Bloom  
I hope you enjoy this story! Happy Reading


	2. 1; Starting Over

Flashes of green and red spells shot all over my living room. Pictures were falling off the walls and small items were falling to the ground and breaking. Feathers from the couch pillows floated all around me as I hid behind the kitchen counter as my only form of protection besides my wand in my hand that I had barely used. What had started as a family dinner soon turned into a battle when people in black robes and masks showed up and broke down our front door. My parents were huddled around me, throwing spells back to defend ourselves. My mother had managed to run across the kitchen and hide herself behind the wall that divided our eating area to the living room that held our only escape. The fireplace.  
My mother had started for the fireplace that was hidden away from the spells of the masked intruders. “Terrance you have to get over here!” Without hesitation my father yelled out a spell that made a loud explosion and grabbed my arm, pushing me in front of him towards my mother. Brown powder was shoved into my sweaty hand that wasn’t holding my wand and my mother yelled “Bloom Residence” loud enough for our destination to be the right place, but not for our enemies to hear where we were going. With a swift throw of the floo powder towards the floor, green flames encased us and we popped out at another brick fireplace in the Bloom’s home.   
“Charles, bring your wand. Quickly! Merlin, what happened to you?” I recognized the voice immediately as Mrs. Bloom. I had known her my whole life and she easily filled the place of a second mother in my life. My parents and I stepped out from under the chimney and stumbled into their living room. I had only been in the Bloom’s home a few times in my whole life, mainly because we always just came to my house or went out somewhere else.   
“Death eaters.” My father’s exhausted voice rang out around the room and he stumbled forward grabbing the edge of the brown couch. That’s when I saw the blood trickling down his arm. My mother ran into the kitchen and grabbed the closest washcloth and ran it under the sink for half a second. She ran back to my father and started applying the wet cloth to his now red arm. Blood was also now dripping off of his forehead and onto the ground.   
I looked around for Juliet. The first time I had taken my eyes off of my bleeding father. I saw her standing on one of the bottom stairs and ran at her to embrace her in a hug. “Thank Merlin” she muttered into my neck as the smell of coconut from her hair products reached my nose. I pulled my face out of her orange curls and smiled at her lightly while sighing after what felt like a few minutes of hugging.   
“Juliet! Go close the curtains, we don’t need to deal with the police as well.” I had forgotten that the Bloom house was on the corner of a common street and was always super busy with muggles walking their dogs and driving by in their cars. I rushed over to the windows with Juliet to push the curtains together. Once all the curtains were closed and the house had a darker appearance to it, Juliet pulled out her wand and flicked it towards the front door to lock it. Mr. Bloom then rushed towards my still bleeding father and started muttering a spell quietly and I watched in awe as the red fluids started to move back into his body.   
Within less than a minute, all the blood was gone and there was no sign of any damage in the first place. Everyone was relieved to see that my father would be okay. “I didn’t think I’d ever have to hear that spell from Charlie again, just like that one quidditch match, aye mate? I still think that was on purpose.”   
Mr. Bloom let out a low chuckle, “I’m glad you’re back to yourself Terry. And I called it, that you were never going to drop that game I mean. You do realize it’s been twenty years right?”   
My mother looked up at Mrs. Bloom with bewilderment on her face. “Can you believe this, Lynn? Not even a minute after Terrance almost bleeds to death and they’re already bickering.”   
Lynn laughed a big laugh, one that Juliet had inherited from her. She had gotten her bright red hair from her father and everyone knew that. The mood inside the room changed dark again as my mother grabbed Lynn’s hand. “I’m sorry we had to burst in on you like this. We didn’t know where else to go, and they were-”  
My mother was cut off by a hug. “It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re all alright.” Lynn looked over my mother's shoulder and gave me a warm smile which I returned. Juliet walked over and gave my mom a hug once the previous hug was broken.   
Mrs. Bloom took out her wand and motioned it towards the kitchen and a kettle of water was put on the stove to warm up for tea and help us all relax a bit. Her brown curls were set over her shoulders and she wore a black long sleeve shirt. Juliet had gotten her looks from her mother, aside from the fire hair. My father broke me out of my thoughts with a serious look on his face. “Children, go ahead, and head upstairs all right?”   
Why was he still referring to us as children? After what I just experienced, I’d rather be called nearly dead than a child. Besides that, I rarely ever got called away from a conversation even if it was something private. Juliet and I looked at each other and headed up the stairs. No way was I going to just let them have a family discussion without me. I stopped Juliet before we entered her bedroom and I whispered, “Do you wanna listen in?”   
She hesitated but then whispered back, “How?”  
I smiled at her and pulled a flesh colored string out of my pocket. I had forgotten that it was even in there, and thankfully mom hadn’t washed it. “It’s called an extendable ear, I got it in a bet last year from Barry, who got it as a gift from someone in London. I’ve never had a chance to use it! You’re supposed to just-” I pulled the end of the string and out popped a real human ear on both sides.   
“That’s brilliant!” Juliet said, beaming. We slowly creaked over towards the railing to the living room, but found it empty.   
“Of course they moved into the study, they just had to make this difficult.” Juliet sighed. She really did doubt this ear and its abilities. I gave her a devilish grin and lowered the end of the ear towards the ground. Through the ear that I held in my hand, voices came clearly through it. Juliet mouthed a ‘wow’ and I brought my hand up to my mouth to prevent myself from laughing.   
“Death eaters are on the rise Charles, It’s our only option.” It was obviously my father's voice on the other end. The room must have been full of tension because I could hear footsteps pacing the floor inside the closed room.   
“This is exactly what we tried to avoid last time by coming here! If we go back to London, we’ll ruin all we’ve worked towards. For the children, remember? HE’S not even alive!” Again with the children calling… and who was he? Frustration was evident through Mr. Bloom’s voice and I looked up at Juliet with both our eyebrows scrunched together.   
“YET! He’s not alive yet! It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, it didn’t work. They found Terrance and Elladora, they know they have a child. Which means it’ll only be a matter of time until they’re back, for more than just them next time. They’re lucky to have escaped alive… we need to send the children somewhere we know they’ll be safe.” Mrs. Bloom always remained calm in these sorts of situations. Now I was confused though. Who are they even talking about?  
“So bringing them to London, closer to the danger is safer?” Mr. Bloom was yelling now and Juliet and I both flinched, pulling the ear down to not hear everything so loud in case of another outburst. 

“Anywhere is safer than here Charlie, they need to go somewhere we know they’ll be safe, away from us… somewhere that always gives help when asked.” That time my mother had spoken and it was one of the only things she said the whole time. 

“Well then it’s settled, I’ll send an owl to Minerva-”

My father cut off Lynn, “No need, I have to speak with Arthur anyways. I’ll drop by Hogwarts and talk with Minerva and Albus myself… sending an owl is too risky right now.”

“And although the order was disbanded, I’m sure with Harry Potter going to school now… there must be talk of getting the old band together.” My mother cut in again and her voice was full of memories. What is the Order? I had too many questions right now and I couldn't keep them to myself any longer.

“What’s the or-” I was cut off by the loud whistle of the kettle on the stove. It was so abrupt that we both jumped back and dropped the ear and watched as it slid off the floor and through the railing to the ground way below. Juliet had tripped backwards and was slowly getting off the floor when we heard the door to the study open. Juliet looked over the railing and quickly stood up and pushed me into her bedroom and then slammed the door shut way too loud. 

“Maybe she didn’t-” She started but her theory was proven wrong quickly. 

“Juliet and Adeline come on down here!” Mr. Bloom shouted so we could hear him, but he didn’t seem angry like he did before. I looked at Juliet quickly and she turned around and opened the door. I followed her out and down the stairs to see her father holding up the ear. “Very clever, girls. Very clever.”

We finished our way down the stairs and onto flat ground before we started to be questioned. 

“Did you make it?”

“No, Sir! I won it from a friend…” I hoped my voice wasn’t too shaky. 

“I assume you heard most of what we had to say?” Mr. Bloom’s voice was calm. Juliet and I both nodded together. “Why don’t you two sit down, this may be a bit of a change for you girls.” 

All the parents now stood in the living room, looking at each other awkwardly. “Well you see…” my father started but suddenly stopped. 

“We think it may be safer for you two to, well…” Mr. Bloom hesitated too.

“If you transferred to Hogwarts to finish your schooling,” Lynn spoke up this time and got the point across very well, “for good.”

I looked over at Juliet who stared right back at me. My mind immediately trailed back to the first two years of school at Ilvermorny. I remembered all the times Juliet had been called a mudblood and a freak for her red hair. She had been bullied so much and I remembered the nights she had cried herself to sleep because we had done a worse job at making friends than we did in the hardest classes. Even last year was rough. For both of us, but more so her. This is where we could start over.

The next few words that left my mouth gave no room for hesitation. “When do we leave?” Juliet looked at me shocked. She hid it quickly and turned back towards our parents and nodded while giving them a small smile. Her father looked back at her and returned the nod. 

\---

Juliet and I were sharing headphones while riding in the car to the train. We both shared a passion for music and our taste in it was pretty similar. Ophelia played in the background of my thoughts. Hogwarts didn’t allow any muggle technology inside it and it would be hard to give up music. I could care less about having my phone for all the other reasons, I just wanted the ability to listen to some good tunes. 

Two weeks had passed since the death eaters had attacked and completely destroyed my house. Very few things were able to be salvaged and that was only because they had been charmed. We had gone shopping to get new clothes and new items that were necessities. 

We soon arrived at the station that would lead us to London. My father wasn’t with us because he had already gone off to London on business. Hugs were given out between everyone as we stood on the platform beside the black train we would ride. Our parents had mentioned that they might come to London and visit once we got situated and things calmed down a bit more. They had to calm down, right?

I hugged my mother one last time and gave her a reassuring smile that I would settle in just fine. “Gringotts Bank 3345, just say either of your last names and show them your wand. You have enough to last you… well, a long time. Oh and you two forgot these!” Mrs. Bloom held up both of our phones with our earbuds wrapped around them that we had left in the car. 

“Mom, you know these don’t work in the-”

“I charmed them for you. You won’t need service, charging, or some sort of device barrier…. It’s a thank you for taking this trip so well for us. I know it’s hard, but I’ll send you an owl every week and-” Juliet cut her off with a hug while tears threatened to spill down both their eyes. 

I turned to my mother and simply said, “I love you mum.” She smiled back and waved her hand a bit.

“I love you too darling. Have fun, make friends, study hard! I’ll see you soon!” She seemed a small bit sad to see me leave, but she knew it was the safest thing to do right now. 

I started to back up with my trunk on my own trolley and smiled one last time before turning around and walking towards the loading part of the train. Juliet followed right next to me. I knew it would be hard for her to leave her parents behind, but she would be okay as long as she had me. I would be her family. We practically already were. 

I stopped in front of a porter and he grabbed our trolleys with our items on them. Juliet stated a word of thanks and he just grumbled back at us. I turned around to face the train and raised my eyebrows for a quick moment and walked up the steps onto the train. We walked through three cars before finding an empty compartment that had beds on both sides of the walls. Juliet immediately collapsed onto one of the beds with her face smushed into the fabric. I took my red backpack off of my shoulders and set it on the corner of the bed. Juliet and I talked for a few minutes about random things before the train started to move. Within five minutes of the train being in motion, Juliet knocked off into a deep sleep. 

The sun had already set within the time we had boarded the train and it would be a nine hour ride to Kings Cross Station where Mr. Weasley was going to pick us up for the Quidditch World Cup Game. I had put my headphones back in to drown out Juliet’s snoring. I watched out the window that was in between our beds as the darkness of the world surrounded us. I had slowly started to drift off to sleep when I realized we were headed straight for water. I knew Juliet wouldn’t want to miss this so I stood up and shook her awake. 

“What’s up?” She asked while yawning and circling her neck around. 

“Look outside your window, doofus!” I stared back out the window and watched in wonder as the train left the tracks and moved straight into the water. We moved through the water like some creature of the deep. The train was quickly submerged and the only thing on the other side of the window was a hue of blue and darkness. 

This was a new way of transportation for me. Well it was new for Juliet too. I wanted my sleep for the events that would be held the next day. I kicked off my converse high tops and lifted my legs onto the bed and pulled a blanket over myself to stay warm. Juliet had done the same across from me and I knew she would fall asleep quickly so I said a quick goodnight, which she failed to respond to. I fell into a deep sleep and never got the pleasure of dreaming like I normally did. I slept comfortably knowing that new things were coming, and I could only hope for the best.


	3. 2; Something New

I woke up around two in the morning to see we were back on land. I couldn’t see far out into the countryside because it was still dark out. Juliet rolled over but stayed asleep. I didn’t want to wake her but I did have to find the bathroom in this place. I quietly slid open the door and walked into the dimly lit hallway, sliding the door shut behind me. I walked past three other closed compartments until I found the bathroom on the left of the train. 

When I got back into our train compartment, I saw that Juliet had kicked off her white blanket and it was laying on the ground. I picked it up and set it back over her and pulled it up to her chin. I assumed she was having a good dream because a smile was creeping up her face. I sat back down on my own bed and pulled the blanket over my legs to stare out the window and do a bit more thinking. I had heard about Hogwarts at Ilvermorny and how the houses were categorized differently from my old school. My parents never said it out loud, but I knew they didn’t care what house I got sorted into. My father always said it only mattered, what was purely in your heart and that your morals were still set high. 

Within the hour the train started to slow down and I could see the lights from Kings Cross Station far out in the distance. It would take Juliet and I a few minutes to get our things ready so I decided to wake her up now. I got up and put my hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me. “Are we there?” Her voice was raspy.

“We will be in a few minutes so we should start packing up our things and get ready.” I stood over my bed and picked up the blanket and started to fold it. Juliet stood up and did the same thing. She yawned a few times and then asked how I had slept.

“Yeah it was okay. Hopefully I can get more sleep tonight.” I had no clue what the plans were for tonight. I thought we would stay at the Weasleys for the night before heading to Hogwarts tomorrow but I wasn’t told of much. My mother had told me that the Weasleys would take good care of us and I trusted her. 

The train slowed down to a stop and we both stood up and threw our backpacks onto our shoulders. We left the door open and followed other people aboard the train towards the exits. I saw the same porter from before, a few train cars down and grabbed Juliet's hand to get her to follow me. We saw our trunks and owls be set onto the ground. I picked both my items up and Juliet did the same thing. I led her over to a spot next to the wall that was away from a crowd of people. 

“Do you even know what Mr. Weasley looks like?” I didn’t have the answer to her question and it was making me nervous.

“I have no clue. All I know is he has red hair like yours. Apparently the whole family does.” I shrugged my shoulders and continued to look around the station for any sight of a man with red hair. From far off in the distance I saw a flash of hair that resembled Juliets. “Hey I think that’s him.”

She followed my gaze to the same place I was looking. I picked my trunk up off the ground and started to walk towards him. He met us with a huge grin on his face. “Are you Mr. Weasley?” Juliet asked beside me. 

“That depends. Are you Adeline and Juliet?” I smiled back at him and nodded. “Well yes I am. Please, call me Arthur.” He looked between me and Juliet and offered to carry Juliet’s barn owl. I could carry mine just fine but she seemed to be struggling a bit. “Now we will just go to the end of the walk way here and apparate back to the burrow. Have either of you ever apparated before?” Juliet shook her head no.

“We’ve heard of it but I’ve only ever traveled by floo powder before.” The one time being two weeks ago in an escape for my life.

“Perfect! Well it’s very quick and saves a lot of time for traveling. Follow me.” With that he turned and started walking across the cement ground. Juliet and I both followed close behind him. When we reached the end he gave us a reassuring smile. “Okay now just put your hands on top of mine and we will go into a bit of swirling around and then be at the burrow within a few seconds. I hope neither of you get motion sickness easily.” Oh no. I got motion sickness very easily and so did Juliet. 

I ignored the possibility of puking and positioned my trunk and cage in my hands so that I could place my free hand on top of his. Juliet put her free hand on top of mine and we instantly started twirling around, leaving the train station behind. Our bodies stretched and twisted all over the place and I could hear Juliet screaming from surprise. Within a matter of seconds our feet hit the dirt ground hard. I could see clearly as I tried to gain my balance but fell back anyways, dropping my trunk and poor owl. I got onto my knees quickly to put the cage upright so Finn could stand on the bar that was positioned in the middle. Finn was a tawny owl that I had gotten when I was thirteen. My parents gifted him to me on my birthday and he was the only pet I had ever had. 

“Sorry about that girls. Are you alright?” I looked up to see that Juliet was on the ground too. Arthur was standing on his feet in the green grass. 

I stood up and brushed off my jeans. “Well that was something new.” He smiled at me and grabbed Finn's cage along with Juliet's owl, Joy. I picked my head up and looked all around me. I saw a five story house that was a bit lopsided and surrounded by tall grass. Trees lined the left side of the house and a small building with a blue car was parked in front of it. I watched as the front door opened and two boys walked towards us. They were identical. 

“Ahh boys, can you come and grab the girl’s trunks?” Juliet and I stood there as one boy walked up to me and grabbed my brown trunk and the other grabbed Juliet’s. 

In unison they both said, “Hello ladies.” I couldn’t help but smile. They seemed like fun. 

“I’m George.”

“And I’m Fred.” 

The boy standing next to me was George. No way was I going to tell them apart. They were seriously identical. I smiled up at the red headed boy who stood eight inches taller than me. “I’m Adeline Finley and that’s Juliet Bloom.” I pointed towards Juliet with my thumb. 

Arthur cut us all off. “Alright inside you go. We have to leave within the next thirty minutes.”

The sun was slowly rising above the trees as it was getting to be around four in the morning. It was still fairly dark, but I could make out big objects like the house. I followed the boys into their home. It had a very warm and cozy feeling. I saw a pan washing itself in the sink and a blanket being knitted in a chair by nothing but magic itself. It was clear that the Weasleys didn’t have to worry about muggles seeing anything. 

“Oh wonderful! You’re both here!” In walked a woman with yet again, red hair. It sat curly at her shoulders and she wore a yellow colored dress with flowers on it. She quickly walked up to Juliet and hugged her, then hugged me. A surprised look came across my face as I was not expecting a hug from anyone. The boys looked at my face and started to laugh. “Please sit down at the table and eat some breakfast. You will all be off soon! Wouldn’t want to be hungry now would you?” I smiled at her and followed the twins towards a table that had twelve seats. They must always have company over. 

Eggs, Bacon, Bread, and fruit was spread across the table with plates and utensils in front of each chair. The twins sat down immediately and gestured for Juliet and I to sit across from them, so we did. We waited for the boys to set the utensils down and then I started to fill up my own plate. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I had seen all the food. 

“How was the train ride, dears?” Mrs. Weasley asked from the living room. Juliet spoke up for the first time since being inside the house.

“Oh it was wonderful! We both slept for most of the time. Thanks for having us over Mrs. Weasley and feeding us, it’s very kind of you.” 

“Oh poppycock, you both will always be welcome here. Please call me Molly, Mrs. Weasley makes me feel like an old lady. Harry, Ron and Hermione should be down soon. Where’s Ginny?”

“Right here mum.” In walked a girl who looked to be a few years younger than me. Her red hair was flat and rested on her back. She came in and sat down next to Fred. No, that was George. Wait was it?

“Oh uhm hi.” She made eye contact with me and broke it to look at Juliet. 

“Hello.” Was all I managed to say before the twins cut me off and introduced us. 

“That’s Adeline, and that’s Juliet.” They pointed at each of us while saying the sentence at the same time. They must do that a lot. 

Footsteps running down the stairs pulled us all out of the awkwardness and I looked up to see a girl with brown hair come down the stairs. Her hair was pulled back into a low bun. She was very pretty. She came in and sat next to me. “Hi, I’m Hermione Granger.” Oh so she wasn’t another Weasley.

“I’m Adeline Finley, that’s Juliet Bloom.” I used my thumb to point over my shoulder at Juliet who was putting butter on her toast. She looked up and smiled at the new girl at the table. 

“Hermione are the boys up?” 

“I told them to come down and eat, Molly, but knowing them, it will take them more time than necessary.” She made it sound like the boys took ages to get dressed.

We all sat eating for a few more minutes before everyone finished and Arthur walked in. “Is everyone ready? We have to get going!” At that time two boys ran down the stairs. I was afraid one of them was going to miss a step and tumble down the rest of the way. They jogged over to the table and started shoving food in their mouths. We all looked up at the boys as they shoved plain bread and bacon, barely bothering to chew. The red headed boy looked at me and immediately stopped eating. 

“Blimey who are you two?” His voice was extremely muffled from the amounts of food in his mouth and pieces of chewed bread fell into the table.

“Ronald finish your food before you talk!” Hermione seemed truly disgusted with both of them. 

“Everyone out the door! Now! We have to be on our way.” Molly rushed in and pushed Ron and Harry out of the kitchen. The rest of us stood up and pushed in our chairs, walking towards the door. I had left my shoes on and only had to grab my backpack that I had set by the couch. I threw it over my shoulders and walked out the door, following Arthur and the twins. 

\---

We had been walking for twenty minutes. Not much was said except for the simple questions that Arthur would ask either Juliet or I. Harry and Ron were half asleep in the back of the group, Hermione and Ginny walked together in comfortable silence and the twins stayed towards the front to listen to conversation. From the back of the group, Ron’s voice rang out. “Hey dad! Where are we going?”

“Haven’t the foggiest, keep up!” Arthur slowed down at a tree where another man was standing. 

“Arthur! It’s about time son.” 

“Sorry Amos. Some of us had a bit of a sleepy start. This is Amos Diggory everyone, he works with me at the ministry.”

All of a sudden a boy jumped out of the tree above us. Juliet and I both jumped back in surprise and once Juliet realized it was just a boy, she put her hand over her heart, as to make sure it’s beat resumed it’s natural pace. 

“And this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right?” Strapping young lad he was. Wow.

The boy stuck out his hand and shook Arthurs. “Yes sir.” Oh and he has manners! He looked at me next as I stood right next to Arthur. His face turned up into a very charming smile. 

“Who are these new faces?” Amos Diggory looked right at Juliet and I. 

“This is Adeline Finley and Juliet Bloom. They are transferring to Hogwarts this year from Ilvermorny. Both of their parents attended Hogwarts when they were younger. We all grew up together.” My mother had briefly mentioned that Arthur had been in her friend group.

“Nice to meet you.” I smiled at Amos and he returned it. I looked back at his son who was still observing me. Juliet seemed to notice this. 

“Well off we go. Cedric, you lead the way.” The boy turned around and started off down the path with the rest of us following. 

Juliet looked at me as we started behind Arthur, the twins right behind us. She leaned into my shoulder and whispered, “Dude did you see the way he looked at you?” I looked up at her confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“Cedric. He was totally checking you out.”

I started to laugh. I couldn’t even keep it in at this point. Ahead of us, Cedric turned around and glanced at me, and me only. He was smiling.

“See what I mean! Why do you always get the attractive ones?” When did I ever get the attractive ones? I looked forward and heard Cedric chuckle. I realized then that she hadn’t whispered the last part.

“I think he heard you.” 

The twins walked up behind us and threw their arms around our shoulders. “Oh pretty boy Diggory…definitely heard you.” 

I looked over at Juliet as she brought her hand up to her forehead and slapped it. 

We walked for a few more minutes while the twins talked a bit about quidditch and the game that would take place in a few hours. Quickly, the trees stopped growing in front of us and the landscape changed from forest to rolling hills. We walked up to the top of the first hill, through the damp grass.   
“That’s it sir, just over there.” I couldn’t see anything.

“Shall we? We don’t want to be late.” Amos walked up past us and towards Arthur and Cedric. I then saw that a worn out brown boot that was laying on the ground. Everyone started to form a circle around the boot, so I followed suit and did the same. I stood in between one of the twins and Juliet.

“Why are they all standing around that manky old boot?” Harry’s voice chimed in asking the question that crossed my mind.

“That isn’t just any old manky boot mate.” One of the twins started.

“It’s a portkey.” The other twin finished.

I had read about these before and knew how they worked. I just didn’t know that it was a portkey until someone mentioned it. Everyone started to put their hands onto the boot.

“Time to go. Ready?” 

“What’s a portkey?” Harry was still confused. He was also ignored.

“After three. One….two….”

“Harry!” The boy ran over and placed his hand on the boot, almost too late. 

“Three!” 

We all started spinning around in a circle with white flashes all around us. Hermione was screaming, as was Juliet. I rarely ever screamed. Mainly because I was always just speechless. I looked up to see Cedric positioned between Arthur and Amos, his hair flying all over the place. He was quite attractive. 

“Let go kids!” Arthur yelled out through the swirling wind. 

“What!” Hermione and Juliet both yelled at the same time. 

“Let! Go!” 

With that, we all let go of the boot and flew through the air. I flipped twice before smacking onto the ground hard. I landed on my chest and my face slammed into the ground. I rolled over onto my back in pain. “Ow” was the only thing that left my mouth. I wasn’t sure if I could even stand up in that moment, my body ached with pain. A few groans left my mouth as I tried to move but failed to do so. 

“I bet that cleared your sinuses eh?” I turned my head over to see Arthur, Amos, and Cedric floating through the air and gracefully hitting the ground, unlike the rest of us. I tried to stand up again but stopped moving around when a shadow stood over me. 

“Here let me help you.” His hand stretched out to me and I grabbed it. He gently pulled me up to a standing position. I winced a bit at the pain in my neck. “Are you okay?” Cedric looked down at me with concern. I put my other hand up to my neck to try and get the pain to stop. 

“Yeah I’m alright. Thank you.” He let go of my hand and smiled at me before turning around to catch up with his dad. 

I stretched out my neck and back as much as I could when Juliet walked up to me. 

“Yeah sure, of course you get the extra help up. I flew just as far.” I laughed at how bothered she seemed. She just looked at me with no emotion on her face.

“Sorry, sorry.” I grabbed her hand and decided to be dramatic. “Oh my sweet Juliet, my dear, are you ever alright?” She pulled her hand away from mine and pushed me away from her. 

“Oh shove off.” 

I was bent over clutching my stomach in laughter. Juliet started off without me and I stood up straight to run after her.

“It wasn’t that funny!” She was frowning at me and seemed almost upset with my much laughing I was doing. 

I realized her hair was poofed out to the size of a lion's mane. “You- your hair!” I couldn’t control myself and busted out laughing again with my hands on my knees. It was getting hard to breathe, I was laughing so hard. 

“Do you think you could take some time from making fun of me and give me one of your hair ties?” She started to pull her hair back with her hand until I pulled off an extra black hair tie from my wrist. She pulled it back into a bun. I controlled my laughter most of the way but the smile was still plastered on my face. 

I finished laughing and we ran to catch up with the others. We crested over another hill and all I could see was thousands and thousands of beige tents. 

“Well kids, welcome to the Quidditch World Cup!” Arthur led us through huge crowds of people. Music played all around us and some people whizzed by us on brooms. Arthur stopped our group in front of a vacant tent. 

“Parting of the waves I think old chap, see you at the match.” Amos turned to walk off down a different path. 

“See you later Cedric!” The twins both yelled out to him, but I watched as he continued to walk off. 

“Don’t worry Adeline.”

“You’ll see your lover boy again.”

The twins surrounded me on both sides and taunted me. “He’s not my lover boy you dimbos.” 

“Oh come on now. You can’t tell us you don’t find Diggory good-looking.” 

I looked at both of them. “Are you serious? I’ve just met the boy.”

“You don’t need to know who he is to label his looks. Now then?”

“Alright fine, yeah he’s attractive.” I knew they wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed, so I gave in. It’s not like I was lying. 

“Wicked.” 

I scoffed and shook my head while pushing through them to get into the tent. The insides were huge compared to the looks of it. Was every tent this big? The twins walked past me and towards the table. 

“Girls. Choose a bunk and unpack. Ron, get out of the kitchen we’re all hungry.”

In unison the twins yelled, “Yeah get out of the kitchen Ron.”

Arthur looked at the twins who had their feet on the table. “Feet off the table.” 

I watched as they moved their legs down off the table and repeated, “Feet off the table.” Once Arthur walked past, they put their feet back on the table. It’s like their body’s and mouth’s were wired to do everything in sync. Their movements were all the same. 

\---

We walked up so many steps to get to our seats. This stadium was gigantic. I was getting frustrated with how much we had to walk. Clearly I wasn’t the only one.

“Blimey dad, how far up are we?” Ron was the one asking all the frustrated questions today. We stopped on a small platform before continuing up more flights of stairs. Two people walked up to the railing directly below us. They both had whitish, blonde hair.

“Well put it this way, if it rains… you’ll be the first to know.” Well this guy seemed nice. Even my thoughts were sarcastic.

“Father and I are in the minister’s box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself.” This boy seemed about my age and as much as he was attractive, he seemed an evenly amount cocky.

The older man took his black cane and hit, who I was almost positive was his son, right in the stomach. “Don’t boast Draco. There’s no need with these people.” 

My comment came out to anyone who was listening. “Who’s that charming bloke?” The sarcasm in my voice was evident. 

“Lucius and Draco Malfoy.” I looked up and saw Cedric standing next to me. I didn’t expect to see him at this moment. He must have come up the stairs quickly with his father and met us here, where we had taken a break. “Not the kindest of people if you ask me.” I almost stared at him for too long, taking in his features. I quickly tore my eyes off of him to not make things awkward. 

“Lovely” was the only thing that came out of my mouth. I was internally slapping myself.

I watched as the younger boy below us looked up right at me and Juliet. His face scrunched up in confusion. “Oi! When did you guys pop out another red-headed freak? Didn’t think you could afford what you have now, as it is, let alone another child.” I was ready to turn around and walk down the stairs to hit this Draco Malfoy boy. 

“She’s not my sister you incompitent bloke.” Ron seemed disgusted, as was I. “She’s not even related to me.”

We turned to walk away when Harry suddenly stopped. I looked down to see his foot stuck under Lucius’ black cane. “Do enjoy yourself won’t you. While you can.” He removed his cane and walked away with his son who took one last look towards Juliet and then at me. I glared at him and he walked off. 

We finished walking up the steps all the way to the top, and man was it a long ways up. When we reached the top, fireworks and balloons were all over the place. Shouting was heard all around the arena. I’d never seen so many people in one place at one time. 

“Come on up, take your seats. I told you these seats would be worth waiting for.” Arthur seemed very pleased with himself. I was shocked. A little bit of anxiousness set in as I looked all the way to the ground that was so far down. 

“Come on!” The twins were yelling now with green and white face paint all over them. 

“It’s the Irish!”

Green and white figures flew through the sky on their brooms, a green powdered trail behind them. A leprechaun appeared in the sky and started dancing. Everyone was bursting with excitement and energy. 

“Here come the Bulgarians!” 

Now five red figures flew through the air, performing stunts on their brooms. On a large screen, none other than Viktor Krum appeared. ‘Krum’ was being chanted throughout the stadium. Even the Weasley boys were yelling his name. 

I positioned myself in a seat between Harry and Ron. I had gotten separated from Juliet but she seemed comfortable with Hermione and Ginny. I looked past Ron and made eye contact and gave her a questioning nod to make sure she was okay. She gave me a big smile back and that was enough for me. The twins stayed standing on the railing, shouting and waving their arms around. They sure were the outgoing bunch. 

The announcer’s voice boomed out, silencing everyone. “Good evening! It gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup. Let the match begin!” 

Not even ten minutes into the game--with Harry repeatedly talking over my shoulder to Ron--did he finally ask to switch seats with me. 

“Uh yeah sure.” There was no point in me arguing with him because I wasn’t talking to anyone in the first place. I stood up and grabbed my bag off the floor while he moved into my seat. I hadn’t even looked to see who Harry was sitting next to, but as soon as I set my bag by my feet and positioned myself with my left leg tucked under my right leg did I realize who I would be sitting next to for the rest of the game. Cedric Diggory. He was in the middle of a conversation with Arthur when I sat down and he didn’t realize Harry had swapped seats with me. I watched the game in front of me as the players zoomed back and forth. Viktor Krum was up in the air, searching the sky for the golden snitch. 

“Hey Harry who do you think-” He stopped when he realized it was me sitting next to him and not Harry anymore. “Oh… hi, Adeline. When did you switch with Harry?” He seemed like more of a quieter boy, but still a very polite one.

I smiled at him as he looked into my eyes. “He kept on talking around me to Ron and then wanted to swap seats. We just switched a moment ago.” 

“Oh...well Adeline, who do you think is going to win?” I looked back out into the arena. 

“Well my money’s on the Bulgarians. Viktor Krum has more wins and he’s been a seeker longer than Aidan Lynch has so he’s more experienced.” I knew a fair deal about quidditch and the teams that were popular. I had read books and heard stories from my father when he once played.

Cedric looked a bit surprised. “I-okay yeah fair enough.” 

“Are you voting for the Irish?” 

“Well I was before you made me second guess myself.”

I looked back at Cedric, taking my eyes off of the game. We made eye contact and both started laughing. “Well we can make a bet on it and whoever wins, gets…. I don’t know? Bragging rights?”

He nodded his head slowly, “Deal”.

\---

Time went by fast while I talked to Cedric, and watched the game in front of us. 

“Have you played quidditch before?” It was nice to talk to someone new who didn’t know everything about me. Someone who actually seemed interested in my weird life. 

“I played a few times last year for my house as a stand in when others couldn’t play. I want to be on an actual team though. My father has told me all his stories about when he used to play.” I really did want to be part of a team. My parents thought I had natural talent in the sport.

“What was your house? I’ve heard that Ilvermorney’s sorting is a bit different from Hogwarts.” He really was genuinely interested. 

“Oh, well they have this thing where you stand in a hall and there are four carvings that represent each house and whichever carving reacts, is the one that you get chosen for. I actually had both the Horned Serpent and the Wampus react so that meant I got to choose which house I wanted, which was Wampus.” I had chosen Wampus because I thought I would suit better as a ‘warrior’ over someone who favored scholars. The name was also cool to me too, but I never told anyone that had persuaded my decision. 

“Wow that’s actually cool. We just have a hat that sits on your head and reads who you are and it takes your opinion into consideration as well. Our houses also have different names. You’ll get the chance to be sorted tomorrow at dinner.” 

“Wait you mean, I have to sit in front of everyone while a hat talks about who I am and then chooses a house for me?” I hated being the center of attention. Especially when I knew no one in the crowd. 

“Don’t worry not that many students bother to pay attention anyways. Everyone’s always talking about how their summer went.” Cedric tried to sound reassuring, but it wasn’t really working. 

“Yeah but I’ll be a fourth year, not a new twelve-year old. Everyone will be watching.” I was stressing myself out way more than I needed to be by overthinking it all.

“Not everyone. I can look the other way if you like?” The smile on his face grew and I rolled my eyes and scoffed. 

“Oh how kind, you would do that for me?” I was being dramatic and brought my hands up to my heart to add emphasis while attempting to do puppy dog eyes.

“Only as long as I can still hear. I’m curious as to what house you get now.” I knew he would definitely be watching anyways. I was curious myself. My mother had been a gryffindor and my father was a slytherin. My sorting experience could be similar to theirs, or far from it. 

Before I could say anything back, the fans started getting extremely loud. I looked out as I saw Viktor Krum reaching out to grab something. It was too far away to see, but I knew it was the snitch. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as he raced around in circles. I was getting dizzy watching him twist and flip. Within a matter of seconds, he caught it and the match ended. Even though Bulgaria had caught the snitch, they were still ten points lower than Ireland who had 170 points. People immediately got up from their seats and started to leave. Either full of excitement, or upset that their team didn’t win. 

Arthur stood up with Amos and the rest of us took that as our signal to do the same. “Well then kids, some match that was!” 

“Some match indeed!” The twins backed away from their spots on the railing and started towards the stairs. We all started to follow. I grabbed my bag and tossed it over my shoulder. I didn’t have much in it except for some money, an extra jacket, my wand, and a book. 

“So I get bragging rights then? Since Ireland won.” Did he really have to ask the obvious?

“It seems that way Cedric Diggory.” I hated losing, but something like this didn’t matter. It was Cedric anyways. He didn’t seem like the type to be too irrational. 

He laughed a little, but never brought it up again that night.

Walking down the stairs took forever because we were literally at the top. We moved down the steps at about twelve per minute. This was taking too long. 

“Technically couldn’t we just apparate back to our tent?” This seemed like a reasonable question to ask. 

“Apparition only works for more powerful and trained wizards. You also normally need your wand for it, and with big crowds like this, it’s too dangerous.” Hermione spoke from below me. She seemed like a very smart girl. 

“Well that’s rubbish.” Juliet laughed beside me at my reply.

I was so tired that I could fall asleep right here in this standing position. The twins seemed to still have a lot of energy as they made jokes and laughed at each other. They had even tied Ron’s shoe laces together when he wasn’t looking, so he fell into his father who stood a step below him. 

Nearly an hour had passed until we had finally made it to the bottom floor and walked out into the night. The sky was full of stars with clouds here and there. Music could still be heard throughout the camp along with frequent fireworks and cheers for the Irish.

Amos and Cedric followed us to the tent we were to stay in before parting ways. Cedric had walked next to me the whole way back to the tent, but we never said anything. It was a comfortable silence. 

“We will meet you in the morning back at the portkey.” Arthur bid goodbye to Amos and walked into the tent with everyone following him. I turned around to say goodbye to Cedric.

“See you tomorrow Adeline.” He smiled warmly. He had a very cute smile. 

I watched for only a second as he turned to follow his father away from our tent. I closed the flap of the tent behind me and immediately sat down on the couch. It was such a fun night, but I was ready to pass out from exhaustion. I set my bag down at my feet and rested my head on a silk pillow. 

I was only asleep for what felt like a countless number of seconds before I woke up to Juliet shaking me awake. “Adeline, get up now!” She was very close to my face and yelling at me. 

“What’s wrong.” I sat up quickly to see Arthur rushing everyone out of the tent. 

“We have to leave now. Something’s wrong.” I stood up and grabbed my backpack before running out of the tent. Arthur was gathered outside with his children, Harry and Hermione. 

“Get back to the portkey everybody, and stick together. Fred, George… Ginny is your responsibility.” Things were exploding in flames all over the place. People were running and screaming in an attempt to escape the danger. 

Harry, Hermione, and Ron took off on their own, way ahead of us. I didn’t know how to get back to the portkey, and I doubted that Juliet knew either since she wasn’t starting to run off. 

Arthur grabbed my arm and pulled me into him so I could hear his instructions. “Follow the twins.” I nodded my head and looked up to see the twins already far in front of us. I grabbed Juliet’s hand and started running. We quickly caught up to them and as we rounded a tent that was on fire I ran straight into someone. I looked up to see Cedric.

“Oh finally, I’ve been looking for you.” He must have seen the fear in my eyes because he didn’t hesitate to grab my hand. He didn’t interlock our fingers, but he made sure he had a tight grip on my palm. He leaned in to talk in my ear to be sure I heard him, “Follow me closely and don’t let go of my hand.” He leaned back to look at my face and I just nodded back. He turned around and started pulling me through crowds of people and past burning structures. I suddenly lost Juliet’s grip on my other hand and turned around to see one of the twins grab her arm and pull her along. I knew she would be safe with them, so I let Cedric lead the way. 

I quickened my pace so that he didn’t have to drag me anymore. Ahead of us, I could see where the hill to the portkey was. I would have never been able to find my way out of here if Cedric hadn’t found me. “We’re almost there. Are you okay?” I looked up at him and nodded again. I didn’t have anything to say with physical words. I was afraid my voice would crack or whatever came out of it, would just sound stupid. He took his gaze off of me and back towards the hill. I turned around to make sure Juliet was still behind us and she was, with one of the twins still holding onto her. 

Within half of a minute we were out of the tents and into the open field. Cedric slowed down his pace into a jog. I matched his steps. We reached the portkey and saw Amos standing there with Arthur. How did Arthur get there so fast? He was behind us when we left. 

The twins, Ginny, and Juliet caught up to us and we all stopped in front of the boot. Behind us, two more figures ran through the dark. As they got closer I could tell it was Ron and Hermione. 

“We lost Harry! We couldn’t find him anywhere!” Hermione was clearly worried for the well being of her friend. Arthur followed them back into the darkness, and towards the once cheery celebration. 

“What happened?” I had to ask and hope someone could answer me. At one moment everyone was enjoying themselves and then the next, all hell broke loose. 

Amos spoke up from the other side of Cedric. “Death eaters attacked the camp. We don’t know why, but members of the ministry are in there right now trying to figure out what’s going on. Are you kids alright?” He directed the question at all of us, but made sure to see that his own son was okay first. 

I had forgotten that Cedric was still holding my hand, more gently now than before. I glanced down at our hands and then back up to his face. I wasn’t uncomfortable with him holding my hand, but it was just something I had never done with a boy before. It was new. He looked away from his father and towards me. He saw me look down at our hands and let go, pulling his hand down to his side. 

“Oh uhm I-uh sorry.” He was stuttering a bit and seemed to randomly get nervous. I smiled at him, putting my hand against my leg. 

“No need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.” I hoped he understood that I was fine with him holding my hand but I also just met this boy today and holding his hand for comfort, wasn’t necessarily taking things slow. What was I talking about? There wasn’t even anything to take slow. All I did was meet someone new today and get along with them. That was it.


	4. 3; Train Ride

I was seated on the cushion of another train. Juliet and I were dragged into a compartment with the twins. I wasn’t complaining too much. Where else would we have sat? Both of the boys sat across from Juliet and I on their own soft bench. We had been brought to Kings Cross Station around eleven this morning. 

Harry had been found by Hermione and Ron quickly, after they had ran back in after him with Arthur. During that time, the rest of us waited back at the portkey in mostly silence. The twins had made sure Ginny was okay. They were good big brothers to her. I had sat down on the grass in exhaustion as my legs were barely able to hold me up anymore. I wanted to rest them as much as I could before we had to walk through the dark to get back to the Burrow anyways. Once I had sat down, everyone took the opportunity to do the same, except for Amos who stayed standing. 

Clouds covered the once starry sky and a green skull appeared above us with a glowing snake. It was chilling to see. I was almost positive it had to do with the death eaters that attacked the celebration. 

Eventually, the trio came back to us with Arthur leading them. We went through the spinning of the portkey again with the beaming white light. Cedric had been positioned next to me this time in the circle and had grabbed my hand to keep me upright when we hit the ground. He hadn’t floated down like he did last time- for some reason- deciding to fly through the air with the rest of us ‘kids’. 

Those of us who had packed our wands, held them out into the darkness of the trees, whispering ‘lumos’ every time the light protruding from the tip of it started to dim out. Juliet and I both had our wands out and even though the light from it was showing the ground in front of me, I still had tripped multiple times. 

We had quietly parted ways with the Diggory’s and I had wondered when I would see them again. Well, when I would see Cedric again. 

Juliet and I had been put into an extra bedroom across from Ginny’s with two twin beds. I hadn’t even bothered to change, I was so tired. Molly was beyond troubled to hear about our trip being cut short, but did her best to hide her fear and pushed us all off to bed to get some sleep. I didn’t know about anyone else, but I slept like a rock.

When I had woken up the next morning, I was in the same position I had fallen asleep in. The sun rays were coming in through the window above Juliet’s bed. 

We had the opportunity to take showers, which we both accepted. I had changed into another pair of clean, black jeans with a red sweater. The uniform that I was supposed to wear later that day was folded into my trunk. I hadn’t gotten a house robe or tie yet, so I would have to get those another time with Juliet. 

After having breakfast and packing up our things, we had left the comfortable Burrow and headed for the train station, leading us to a new school year. 

We had been on the train for an hour already and there were about another eight dreadful hours to go. I wanted nothing more to listen to music to pass the time, but I was skeptical of pulling out my phone in front of the twins, so I decided to wait till a later time.

I had decided to read the book that was still in my backpack. Jules was lost in her thoughts and the twins across from us were writing down ideas that they were thinking of. I got too interested in listening to their conversation so I closed my book and set it down on the seat next to me. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Just planning out our pranks for the year.” 

“Pranks?”

“That’s what we said.”

“What kind of pranks?”

“The kind that are funny. 

“Or just scare people so much that they tell on us and McGonagall takes a few points away from our house.”

“Oh…can I see some of the ideas?” They both looked at each other almost as if to question if they should or not, and then looked back at me and smiled. 

They’re list wasn’t super long and most of the ideas were just having to do with putting nasty liquids in someones drinks to make them puke, or following third years around the castle and making it seem like a ghost was haunting them. I contributed to a few new ideas and modified other ones. 

“I reckon when we pull this one, we’re going to need your help to pull it off.” I looked up from the list and smiled mischievously at the two of them. 

“Gladly.” Even if I participated, and we got in trouble, the twins promised to take the heat for it so it wouldn’t reflect too badly on me. 

“Listen, okay so I hate to ask this, and I feel bad about it but I have to ask…” Both red heads looked at me with confusion written clearly across their faces. “Is there anyway to tell you guys apart because I don’t know who's who.” I gave them a very awkward half smile to show how sorry I was about having to ask.

“It’s okay actually.”

“Most people just refer to us as Weasley since they don’t know the difference.”

“Oh, uhm I’m sorry guys that sucks.” I didn’t know how I was supposed to console either of them. Nobody bothered to tell the difference between the two of them and that could easily make them feel like they weren’t important or that they didn’t matter. 

“Well you see here, Freddie has a freckle right here.” The twin pointed to his brother next to him and placed his finger right above a brown freckle that was on the left side of his face below his eye and closer to his hairline.

“And you see here, Georgie has a more flatter nose, while I have a bump in mine.” I observed the details they examined about themselves and was able to see the difference in their nose shapes.

“Okay yeah definitely. I might stare at you guys for a bit when I walk down the halls to see which one of you I’m talking to, so don’t be alarmed.” They both let out a laugh with big bright smiles.

“Well don’t stare too long, Diggory might get jealous.” They had cheeky grins on their faces. I whipped my head around from my new place on the floor when I heard Juliet laugh behind me. 

“Seriously guys! I doubt he’s even into me.” I muttered the last part, maybe because I wished he was into me, or because I was starting to blush. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Juliet seemed overly frustrated. “Did you not see the way he was looking at you? Or how happy he seemed when he was talking to you? OR when he ran back into a burning camp just to find you!” She added extra emphasis to the last sentence. 

“Or the way he held your hand and made sure you were okay.”

“Or the way he left the portkey early with the rest of us to make sure you didn’t faceplant again?” 

Wow. They really just threw all these examples out here that I was oblivious to. I was speechless. I didn’t have any words. More so the words wouldn’t form in my mouth. I looked between the three of them with my lips parted and my jaw lowered. 

“I get that you only just met him and all but clearly he wants to get to know you better. I wish I could get a guy to look at me the way Cedric looks at you. It’s like he's infatuated with you and he only just met you!” Juliet’s thoughts immediately took her somewhere else. Was she thinking about someone?

“Okay, okay! This is all just new to me. I already have more friends now than I did the past three years of my life.” The closest person in my life was sitting in the same room as me, and moving didn’t require that to change. Honestly that was probably the main reason that I was okay with moving. That and no one would care that I was gone, because the one person that cared the most was sitting right beside me. 

\---

I had fallen asleep two different times on this never ending train ride. I woke up the first time to the twins laughing about something and once they saw me move my head, they were quick to apologize. The second time was when I started to dream that I was falling off my broom in a quidditch match and I then hit my head on the wall from waking up so fast. 

I had slept for most of the trip to pass the time. There wasn’t much else to do. I was broken from my thoughts by the twins speaking to Juliet and I. “We’re gonna be there in about an hour.”

“Might want to go change into your uniforms.”

The boys had already put theirs on before we left the house but since we didn’t have our ties or robes I felt it was weird to wear them early. We both nodded our heads and left our temporary compartment to go find the train car that had all the trunks in it. Some people loaded their trunks into the areas that they would sit for the long ride and we should have done that, but we didn’t. 

We had walked past multiple compartments that were full of students and I was glad that Juliet and I had found a place with the twins. I had no clue where else we would have sat. I recognized Harry who was sitting in a compartment with Hermione and Ron. I smiled through the window and they returned it and Hermione waved. When we reached the trunks, I found ours on the top rack. 

“These are gonna be heavy to pull down. We should have just brought them into our compartment.” I groaned. How were we supposed to get these down without dropping them. I looked around the floor and saw more trunks on the ground. If I could just step onto another one then I could use it as a stool and have a better chance of not dropping it. I pulled one out from the bottom and into the isle. 

“What are you doing?” Juliet seemed very confused with what I planned on doing.

“If I use this one as a step up then I can get the trunks easier.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It seems a bit rude to use some random person’s trunk.”

I glanced down at the initials on the trunk. “Oh but this isn’t any random person's trunk.” I looked up at Jules with a huge smirk on my face. “This trunk says DM and I’m willing to bet that DM stands for none other than that Draco Malfoy. If anything, he deserves it.” I finished scooting the trunk to the perfect spot on the floor and stepped up onto it. It held my weight just fine. I reached up and grabbed Juliet’s trunk and pulled it off the shelf. It was definitely heavy, but I only had to hold it for a few seconds before I placed it on the ground with Juliet’s help. I reached up to my trunk and opened it while it was still on the rack. I blindly reached my hand in and pulled out the black pants. I handed them down to Juliet and then reached in again to grab my white button up and black sweater. As I was latching the lid shut, someone was entering the car. 

I turned around quickly to see that familiar face with white hair. Oh no. 

“What are you two mudbloods doing in here?” Disgust was dripping from his voice and irritation coursed through my veins. I turned around and pushed my trunk back into its original spot before stepping down off of his trunk. He glanced down at the trunk for only a second before anger took over him. “What the hell are you doing! You think you can use my stuff? Clearly you don’t know who your superiors are!” 

I glanced at Juliet who seemed taken aback and slightly scared. No way was I going to let this boy talk to either of us that way. “Listen I don’t know who you are, or who you think you are, but you have no right to talk to either of us that way.” I took a step towards him while I was talking. He seemed almost surprised that I had said something. Apparently he wasn’t used to people talking back to him. I was waiting for him to say something else, but he was cut off when his mouth opened to say some other insult.

“What’s going on in here?” I turned around to the other end of the train car to see Cedric walk in with another boy. Neither of them had their uniforms on, so they must have been doing the same that Juliet and I were doing. 

“Nothing, just Malfoy being a pain in the a-”

“How dare you talk to me!” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. This kid was something else.

I heard footsteps walk up beside me and looked over to see Cedric standing next to me. “Just leave Malfoy. Come back later when we won’t be here to ‘dare to talk to you’.” I watched as the boy scoffed, rolled his eyes, and walked out the door he had just come through. 

“Are you alright?” I looked up to Cedric who was looking down at me with a questioning look. 

I sped through the first part of answering his question so I could ask my own. “I’m fine, but what’s his deal? He’s always got such an attitude.” I turned around and stepped back up onto Draco’s trunk. I grabbed Juliet's trunk that was latched shut. She had already grabbed her uniform when I was reaching in for mine. 

“Why don’t you step off of Malfoys trunk and let me do that?” I had already lifted it into the air and was pushing it up and onto the rack. 

“I’m fully capable, thanks.” I hated it when boys underestimated me. I pushed it into place, flush with my own trunk and turned around towards Cedric who was watching me intently. I stepped off the trunk I used as a stool and pulled my sweater back down, it must have lifted up when I picked up the other trunk. I turned around and pushed Malfoys trunk back into place, out of the aisle. 

“Maybe next time, just ask someone for help? Or at least try not to get on Malfoys bad side.” Cedric’s voice was laced as more of a request than a question. I turned around for the second time to face him and took my clothes from Juliet. 

I didn’t want to argue with him, even though I could have in the moment. “Okay, fine.” We stood there looking into each other’s eyes for a few moments, everything that Juliet and the twins had said racing through my mind, before we were pulled out of our trance. 

“Cedric we need to get our stuff too.” We both broke eye contact and looked back at his friend that stood behind Juliet. He had a smirk on his face and I knew the exact reason for it. 

“Uhm yeah, okay.” I started to walk away from the boys because I didn’t want to be stuck in another awkward situation. “I’ll see you later Adeline?” 

I turned around and looked at him. He had very pretty grey eyes. I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, see you later Cedric.” With that I turned around and walked out of the car to go change for the ceremony. 

Juliet found the girls changing room before I did and opened the door to it. Thankfully no one else was in it and we could talk freely. 

“Hey are you okay? Malfoy’s a jerk for saying that stuff.” I wanted to make sure she didn’t take his name calling to heart.

“I’m fine Adeline. I’m glad Cedric came in there though.” I looked over at her before taking off my shirt. “Not because of that, because I think you would have hit him or something if it was just us in there.” I tilted my head to the side in a nod. She was probably correct. 

We changed in silence, both of us stuck in our thoughts. I walked over to the mirror and finished buttoning up my shirt. I turned around to make sure everything was positioned on me correctly. I looked up to see Juliet struggling to put her tie on correctly and let out a laugh. 

“Look, I’ve never had to wear a tie before, a real tie I mean! There’s no need to make fun!” She was starting to pout, “How did you know how to do it?” How did she not know how to do it?

“What do you mean you didn’t ever need to tie a real tie before? You wore them everyday at Ilvermorny!” I was laughing in disbelief. 

“Uh..no! They were clip-on and different!” She was completely serious and frustrated. She put her hands on her hips with a huff and made me laugh even more. 

“You mean the one you got as a first-year? When you first started because you were twelve?” Has she seriously been wearing a clip on this whole time?

“Yeah?” She was confused now. 

“You-you were supposed t-to switch over to real ties after the first Christmas break!” I was stuttering between catching my breath from laughing. How had I not noticed? I walked over to her and helped her fix her tie while I controlled my laughing. 

I stepped away and walked over to the mirror to check my outfit to make sure it looked good. “Does this look alright?” 

Juliet looked up at me and motioned for me to turn around in a circle. I spun around slowly and lifted my arms up into the air. “As hot as ever. I could get used to these uniforms. They’re more comfortable than our old ones.” 

I chuckled again at the memory of her wearing a clip on tie for so long. “Addy shove off!” 

I flipped my hair behind my head in a way to act like I was better than everyone else, “Time to get all the boys to swoon over the new girls.” I pulled my arms up onto my hips and modeled for her. 

We broke out laughing but stopped quickly when the door opened. In walked three girls. I only paid attention to the first one who had black hair and bangs that rested above her eyebrows. She was glaring at me. I gave her a questioning glance before I grabbed my clothes and shuffled out of the room with Jules following close behind me.

Once she closed the door and we were a few doors down I spoke up, “What was that about?”

“Maybe she’s just jealous of how good we look.” I looked over at her and she had a preppy smile on her face. We both started laughing again. We walked into our compartment with the boys sitting in silence. 

“What are you two smiling about?” Smiles grew on their faces as soon as they saw ours. 

“Oh ya know, just us being us.” They looked between each other before smiling. 

I sat down and watched out the window as the train started to slow down. As soon as it came to a stop, the twins stood up. “We’re here!” The nerves rose up in my stomach, the new year was officially beginning.


	5. 4; The Sorting Ceremony

The boys had slid open the door and were starting to walk out into the hall. I shoved my book into my backpack and followed Juliet out, leaving the compartment door open. We shuffled along with other students to get to the exit. When it was finally my turn to walk down the steps and onto the cement platform of Hogwarts, I let go of the air I held in my lungs. There were street lamps lighting up the dark pathway. The twins started to walk away from the train without grabbing any of their belongings. 

“Wait guys, don’t we have to get our trunks?” 

“There’s some sort of system that they go through which brings them up to the castle immediately. No work required.” Ahh, well that sounds nice. “Cmon now, got to catch up to a carriage.” They started off again down the student packed trail with Juliet and I following. 

We climbed into a black carriage that was being pulled by nothing. Probably just magic. The ride up to the castle was mostly silent. We rounded a corner of trees and the glowing castle stood tall and mysteriously. Juliet led out a gasp of amazement. 

“Pretty nice, innit?” 

“It’s brilliant!” I looked over to Juliet whose mouth was wide open, “Better than Ilvermorny you think?” 

She nodded her head profusely, “Very much so.”

There was a long line of carriages at the castle. Students were hopping out of them and walking towards the big doors. Fred and George started to get out and motioned for us to do the same. Fred... yes Fred, held his hand out for me to take as I hopped out of the carriage. I lightly grabbed it and stepped down onto the cobblestone path. 

“Well, in we go.”

We followed other students towards the big open doors of Hogwarts. I felt a bit out of place because I didn't have a robe on or a house tie, and I would easily be identified as the new girl, but there was nothing I could do about it. I took my first step into my new school. Big lamps light up the corridors of the castle. There was no way I could get lost right now with the amount of people headed in one direction. 

“Ms. Finley, Ms. Bloom, is that you?” 

I turned around to see an older lady with a green robe on and a black witch's hat. I nodded my head slightly. She started over to our group of four with a big smile on her face. “Welcome to Hogwarts ladies, I hope the train ride over was comfortable.” My mind immediately took me to the argument with Malfoy but I shrugged it off. 

“Yes it was wonderful, thank you!” I made sure to return the smile she was wearing. 

“Perfect, I’m Professor McGonagall, now would you two please follow me, I’ll bring you to the great hall to be sorted with the first years.” I looked back at the twins, the anxiety growing and making my stomach do flips. They gave me a reassuring nod. “You can both give your bags to the twins and they will keep track of them.” She looked over me and Juliet to give the boys a look. They followed her instructions and took the backpacks from our shoulders. 

“You’ll get them back, don’t fret.” 

“Now follow me.” I looked at Juliet who was looking at me. I breathed in a full breath of air before following the professor, through the lines of students. I was so nervous, I couldn’t speak. We stopped in front of a group full of twelve year olds. Even they had black robes on. They were all talking amongst themselves but quieted down once they saw the professor. “Hello everyone. We will have the sorting ceremony take place in just a few minutes.” She turned to me and Juliet. “You two will get sorted first.” We both nodded our heads quietly. She walked off down the hall and I took it as my only moment to say something. 

“Jules, I’m terrified right now.” 

She turned her head to the right to look at me and grabbed my hand with hers. “Yeah I’m pretty nervous right now too.” 

“Yeah but I feel like I could puke at any moment.” My stomach was churning so much that I was beyond uncomfortable. 

“Well don’t. That’ll only make the situation worse when everyone staring at you with vomit down your shirt.” as much as I didn’t care to hear it, she had a point. 

“Your hands are sweat-” Jules cut me off by elbowing me. I guess it was something I could have kept to myself but her hands were sweaty and it wasn’t the most comforting thing to be holding in the moment. 

McGonagall returned and motioned for us to follow her. My feet led the way into the great hall where four, long tables were positioned in a row. I let go of Juliet’s hand for fear of either being judged and just from being uncomfortable and wanting my own hands at my own sides. Ahead of us sat a table horizontally, where adults were sitting. This must be the professors table. We were led to the left side of the room where the first years huddled behind Juliet and I. 

An older man with a long grey beard stood up and walked to a podium. His silver robes cascading down his body. “Good evening students. Before we begin the feast, it is time for our annual sorting ceremony. Before we get the first years sorted, we will sort two transfer students from Ilvermorny. I trust that you will make them feel welcome in their new school.” Clapping surrounded the room and the anxiety rose in my chest again as multiple eyes landed on me. “Adeline Finley, you will go first.” You’ve got to be kidding. Why do I have to go first? Professor McGonagall led me onto a small platform where a three legged stool sat with a hat on top of it. She picked it up and motioned for me to sit down. I turned around and positioned myself into a stable sitting position.

I looked out among the tables in front of me. Literally everyone in the room was looking at me. I scanned the tables, looking for one familiar face. My eyes immediately met with his. Once he knew I had found his eyes he brought his hands up to his eyes and covered them. I tried so hard to keep in my laughter, but I couldn’t hide my smile. He brought his hands back down to his lap and smiled back at me. For a moment, time seemed to stop and all my nerves had settled, but they quickly came back when something was positioned on my head.

“Mmm yes very brave with a need to prove yourself. You will do anything to protect those of that which you love and care deeply for. You’re loyal, yet cunning. Mm yes, okay, let it be…” This single second felt like the longest in my life. “Gryffindor!” Clapping broke out among the whole hall with especially loud yelling from the twins. 

I stood up and looked at McGonagall unsure of what to do next. “Go sit at the Gryffindor table, dear.” I nodded my head and walked off of the platform alone, straight for the twins. The Gryffindor table was full of students who were staring at me with smiles all on their faces as they continued to clap. 

The twins moved to the sides to give me a seat in between them which I took. I sat down and looked up to see Juliet stepping onto the platform. Before the hat was placed on her head I gave her a reassuring smile and she nodded back. 

I could barely hear what it was saying from where I sat but I heard it say ‘just and loyal’, and then yell out ‘Hufflepuff”. Cheers rose through the hufflepuff table and I looked over to see Cedric clapping too. I figured we wouldn’t be sorted into the same house, she was so much more patient and kind than I was, but it looked like she was welcomed in and she had a huge smile on her face. 

“I knew you would be Gryffindor.”

“We both knew.”

“And why is that?” 

“Well we know you’ll stand up for your friends…”

“And you seem quite loyal and brave.” This was Fred talking. I could tell easily because the freckle was on the side of his face that was closest to me.

“Well I’d like to think I am.” It was true. I did want to be all those things.

“Clearly you are, or the sorting hat wouldn’t have put you here.” They both were smiling at me.

“Thanks guys. I’m just glad I’m here and have you two instead of somewhere that I know no one.” I glanced over to see Juliet talking with a few girls that seemed to welcome her in nicely. 

A few other first years got sorted into gryffindor but a lot of them went to the Ravenclaw table this year. I was zoned out for most of it anyways, deep in thought about what this year had to offer. This school already seemed so much more welcoming and comforting than Ilvermorny and I was happy to be here. I felt like I finally belonged somewhere. 

“Now we're all settled in and sorted, I'd like to make an announcement. This castle will not only be your home this year but home to some very special guests as well. You see Hogwarts has been chosen…” 

The headmaster was cut off by some older man running up the aisle between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff table. His legs were raised high up in the air as each foot leapt off the ground. I stifled a laugh. What on earth? He ran up to the podium and whispered something in the headmasters ear before running off again back down the aisle in his comical way. 

“So Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event. The Tri-Wizard tournament. Now for those of you who do not know, the tri-wizard tournament brings together three schools for a series of magical contests. From each school a single contestant is selected to compete. Now let me be clear, if chosen you stand alone. And trust me when I say these contests are not for the faint hearted but more of that later. For now please join me in welcoming the lovely ladies of the Beauxbatons Academy of magic and their headmistress Madam Maxime.” 

The doors were thrown open and in pranced a group of girls in baby blue outfits. They danced down the aisle and blue butterflies were released into the air. They took a few steps before bowing and making “aw” sounds in front of the boys. In front of Ron and Harry. 

They finished making their way to the front to do a final bow with a girl in silver and pink doing flips and cartwheels. A very tall woman walked down the row behind them and stood at the front with her students.

“And now our friends from the north, please greet the proud sons of Durmstrang and the high master Igor Karkaroff.” 

I turned around again along with the rest of the student body to hear staffs hitting the ground and shouting following it. Multiple older boys walked down the aisle now while twisting and twirling around their staffs. Every time they hit the floor, red sparks flew out from the bottom. 

“Blimey it’s him, Viktor Krum!” I could hear Ron's voice a few people down, he wasn’t exactly quiet. 

A boy who had made his way to the front of the hall, kneeled down and blew a fire dragon out of his wand. 

Greetings were made between our headmaster, and Durmstrangs headmaster. 

“Now that they have been introduced, you may enjoy your feast!” 

Suddenly, multiple piles of food appeared on the table and hands were instantly grabbing at the items. There were options like chicken wings, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and even desserts had shown up. I reached up to grab the spoon for the mashed potatoes and plopped a pile of them down onto my plate. I grabbed a few pieces of chicken and a spoonful of veggies and started eating. 

“I didn’t realize how hungry I was till now, I’m starved!” I hadn’t consumed anything since breakfast that morning, back at the Burrow.

“The feasts here are always the best!”

“Just wait till you see breakfast.”

Voices were heard loud and clear around the hall but most students were busy indulging in food for the first five minutes for there to be a lot of conversation. I wasn’t stuffing my face, but I also wasn’t exactly eating slow. 

“Might wanna slow down there, Adeline. Wouldn’t want to choke.” George spoke up from the seat to my right. 

“Oh yeah especially not with the whole hall watching.” Fred this time.

“Oh shove off. I’m hungry okay. And why do you two always feel the need to pick on me for everything?” They did seem to always choose something to bring up about what I did. 

“Who else would we make fun of?” They both smiled down at me.

“Uhm I don’t know, how about Ron...or Harry, or literally anyone else.” I was sure they picked on Ron too. In fact I knew they did. I remembered the shoe lace situation at the World Cup. Did they ever pick on Harry?

“We’ve adopted you into the new torture position for this year.” 

“How splendid.” My voice dripped with sarcastic enthusiasm. 

“Your attention please! I would like to say a few words. Eternal glory, that is what awaits the student who wins the tri-wizard tournament. But to do this that student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks.”

Dumbledore had silenced the room from conversation, but students were still freely eating, including myself. 

“Wicked.” The twins whispered.

“For this reason the ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule. To explain all this we have the head of the department of international magic cooperation Mister Bartimus Crouch.” 

Thunder broke out above the great hall along with rain and some students screaming. My mouth was too full of carrots and asparagus to do anything. A quick magical spell was cast upwards and the weather immediately stopped. Everyone quieted down and looked at where the spell had been cast from. A man stood leaning against the frame of a door. He looked a little raggedy. He limped over to Dumbledore while some mechanical eye scanned the room. 

“My dear old friend, thanks for coming.” 

“That stupid roof.” This strange man took a swig of some hidden liquid inside a flask. What was he drinking?

“What’s that he’s drinking do you suppose.” I didn’t recognize the voice of the person who asked and I didn’t care to look either. 

“I don’t know, but I doubt it’s pumpkin juice.” That voice came from Harry. 

“After much deliberation the ministry has concluded that for their own safety, no student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed to put forth their name for the tri-wizard tournament. This decision is final.” 

Booing broke out over the whole room. I knew nothing about this tri-wizard tournament but clearly the age rules here were looked down upon.

“That’s rubbish!” The twins started to yell besides me. I didn’t even know how old they were, but I knew they were a grade ahead of me so they must be sixteen then if they are disagreeing with this rule. 

“Silence!” The whole room was hushed rather quickly. I almost felt ashamed for the sudden outburst of the student body, mainly since there were guests in the hall. 

The headmaster cast a spell over a large box that sat at the front of the room and it started to melt into a blue and silver goblet. It did look like a pretty trophy to have stored in a popular room of whichever school would win it. 

“The goblet of fire. Anyone wishing to submit themselves for the tournament must merely write their name upon a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly, if chosen there’s no turning back. As from this moment the tri-wizard tournament has begun.” 

Dumbledore retreated to his seat at the professors table and voices rose up again throughout the house tables. 

“That’s rubbish. They don’t know what they’re doing.” Fred and George were clearly upset. 

“When do you guys turn seventeen?”

“April first.” Oh, they still had over a few months to go. 

“Hey look at it this way, now you can live to another year without having to die in a wizard competition.” I said it mainly as a joke. Did students really face life or death situations in this tournament? 

“Yeah sure, but still.” My stupid joke helped zero bit.

“Sorry guys, at least I’ll have someone to watch it with in the stands.” I threw my arms around their shoulders and pulled them into awkward side hugs. It was only extremely awkward because they were so much taller than me and my arms were almost straight in the air, but it did the trick to make them smile at my failure of a cheering up session. 

I was glad I had the two of them with me. I knew I’d always have Juliet, but something about the twins made me feel like I had extra love to give and feel. It wasn’t romantic at all, but it was a friendship that was growing extremely fast and like my mother told me before I left her in America, ‘make friends’. I would want to keep them as close to me as I could, because I would need them, and little did I know that they would need me.


	6. 5; The Perfect Prefect

Professor McGonagall had stopped me on my way out of the hall and told me to have someone in my house show me around Gryffindor common room and around the school before curfew. She had glanced at the twins that were with me and they had both nodded. 

“So apparently I don’t get much choice in who I choose?” I had made sure the professor was far enough away before asking them. The twins had taken the responsibility of mentor over me before I even had the opportunity to choose anyone. 

“Nope.”

“We’ll show you around and make sure you get familiar with the castle.” 

I had already gotten my backpack back from them and wanted to give Juliet her bag before going on the tour and parting ways. I wasn’t sure if I would be seeing her again that night and wanted to make sure she was comfortable. “Hey I’m gonna go talk to Juliet first, can you just wait out in the hall for a second?” 

They both nodded and walked through the doors. Juliet was still seated with a few girls, the seats across from her were empty, since most of their tables members were gone. She saw me walking towards them and waved me over. Even the girls next to her smiled at me. 

“Hey I just wanted to give you your bag before I leave. McGonagall said I needed to choose someone to show me around so the twins have accepted that position.” I handed her the purple backpack across the table and she grabbed it and set it under her stool. 

“Oh Cedric will probably show you around since he’s a prefect.” One of the girls sitting next to her looked down the table. I followed her gaze to see Cedric still sitting with some of his friends, talking and laughing. His smile brought warmth to my chest. 

“Uh yeah sure!” She smiled slightly at her friends before looking across the table back at me. “Thanks for bringing my bag.”

“Yeah of course, are you doing okay?” It was a little awkward to ask her right in front of her friends but I didn’t know another time that I would ask. 

“Oh yeah, I’m good. Glad to be here.” She smiled and her friends chuckled next to her. “Are you okay in Gryffindor?” 

“Yeah definitely. The twins are nice to have, aside from the constant teasing.” They were nice to have, and the teasing didn’t bother me that much.

She raised an eyebrow at me and smiled, “You mean the Cedric teasing?” Of course she had to bring it up right in front of her new friends.

I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help the smile that rose on my lips. “Yeah...that teasing.” 

“Wait! You like Cedric?” The girl with brown braids that sat on the left of Jules asked me with worry and excitement mixed on her face. 

Thankfully, Jules cut in for me. “More like Cedric fancies her.” I smiled awkwardly at her save. 

“Ooo the new Gryffindor and the Hufflepuff, how exciting!” I was afraid she was going to start clapping and bring all the attention in the room to us. 

“Uh, yeah...anyways, I should get going. I have the twins waiting in the hall, I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable.” I stood up from the bench with my legs sliding across the smooth wood. 

“Yeah I’m all good! I’ll see you later Adeline.” As I went to blindly turn around I saw her eyes widen for only a split second. I didn’t have a fast enough reaction time to stop my already moving body and I slammed into another figure. I could see the flash of yellow and black as I stepped back to regain my composure. I looked up into the face of a smiling boy. The familiar smiling boy that made my chest warm. 

“Sorry Adeline, I was coming to get Juliet for the tour.” He was laughing a little in between his words and it only made my pulse quicken. When I didn’t say anything he spoke again, “Are you okay?” 

I spoke so quickly that I was ready to move to the side and run away from him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry Cedric.” I turned my head around to see all three girls smiling at me. It only made this whole situation more awkward. 

I turned around and smiled up at him, “I’ve got to go.” I hurried and walked off before he could say anything else that made me flush with embarrassment. I felt eyes searing into the back of my head but I just kept on walking. I made my way out the large doors of the great hall and into the corridor where a few students were walking around. The twins were nowhere in sight. Brilliant. I turned around to scan the tables in the hall to see if they had gone back inside. They weren’t in there either. 

I turned around in a failed attempt at finding them and jumped while letting out a loud, deep yell. There they stood right in front of me. They both busted out laughing. 

“Bloody hell!” I brought my hand up to my heart and tried to slow down it’s fast pace. They laughed even harder and doubled over, clutching their stomachs. 

“You should have seen your face.” They said the phrase in unison, something they hadn’t done for a few hours. 

I reached out and punched one of their shoulders. George’s shoulder. “Hey!” Fred started laughing at his brother's pain and I reached out and pushed him to make it even which raised a laugh from George. 

“That was not funny!” They laughed again. When their eyes moved from me, to my left, I whipped my head around to see what they were looking at. Out of the hall walked Cedric, Juliet, and one of the Hufflepuff girls that was in the conversation earlier. They all had even smiles on their faces. Tell me they did not just see what happened. I made eye contact with Juliet and she shrugged her shoulders.

“Eh, I’d say it was pretty funny.” I threw my head back and stared at the ceiling for a second before turning back to the twins. Their laughing was reduced to smiles. Why was I always put in these situations? 

I walked forward, twisting both of the twins around and pushing their backs to get them to walk forward, away from the group of Hufflepuffs. 

Thankfully, Cedric had led the girls the other way and hadn’t followed us. Once we were around the corner, I took my hands off of the boys in front of me and we slowed down to a stop. 

“Okay how about a bit more showing me around and less pranking and making fun of me?” They laughed one last time before leading me off to explore Hogwarts.

\---

“This is the library, you’ll find all the books you need in here, along with your textbooks for classes.” The twins had finally stopped saying things at the same time, or finishing each other's sentences and were saying phrases on their own. I was fine with the way they said things, it was just a bit confusing when everything was said separately, more so distracting. 

“Am I going to get my schedule soon?” This was one of my most important questions. 

“We’ll all get them tomorrow morning at breakfast.” Fred was doing most of the talking on this tour. We had been walking around for an hour and all I wanted was to lay down on my bed, even though I had no clue where it was. 

“You pretty much know where everything is now. If you get lost you can just ask someone in the hall and they should point you in the right direction.” George spoke up now for one of the first times within the past hour. I nodded and Fred continued on. 

“Now we’ll take you to Gryffindor tower.” They started off down the hall and I followed. I was already confused as to where we were, but I would figure it out eventually. I hoped Juliet was understanding where stuff was in case I needed her help.   
We’d walked past groups of other students, most of them not even bothering to look up at us. Some of them did and when they stared, it got a little uncomfortable, but the twins always kept their pace the same. 

We came to a set of stairs, and looking up, there were many other sets of steps, only with about twenty steps each, but they were floating. They would connect with one set, before another would break off and change the path. As dangerous as it could be, it looked fun.

“Woah! Flying stairs?” The boys stopped a few steps above me and looked down at me, even more now than they normally would. 

“Yeah, but you have to watch them.”

“If you fall off...even Diggory couldn’t save you.” Why did they have to bring him into everything? 

“Okay I get it.” I quickly cut off their Cedric comments before they could continue with them. They turned around and continued up the stairs while I followed. To begin with, the stairs stayed together until the one we were on, suddenly started moving. Instinct told me to grab the railing, so I quickly did. I kept a firm grasp on it as the twins lightly placed their hands on the cold cement. The stairs moved up a few feet and then glided across the room before sticking into place with a platform. The twins hurried forward onto flat ground and I ran forward to be sure I didn’t miss my opportunity. 

We’d taken a few different sets across the room until we ended up at a large picture frame with a lady sitting in it. She was moving around inside the portrait but stopped and looked at us standing there. 

“This is the entrance into the Gryffindor common room. The password is Caput Draconis, don’t forget it or you’ll be locked out.” I nodded my head in understanding while both of them looked at me to make sure I was getting what they were saying. 

“Oh who do we have here? A new Gryffindor?” Her voice was a bit high pitched for my liking but it’s not like I could control that. 

“Caput Draconis.” Both of the twins said it at the same time with order and authority in their voice. 

“Okay, okay...fine.” The portrait slowly opened and the twins started to walk in. I heard the lady mutter, “Well at least she’s pretty” before the portrait of a door swung shut behind me. I smiled to myself at her compliment. I was taken out of my thoughts at the beautiful room in front of me. Multiple different shades of red stood out, emphasis on the gryffindor house colors. 

“Welcome to the Gryffindor common room!” 

Red sophas sat in front of a blazing fire, with gold blankets around the sides and backs. More red chairs sat in different corners of the room along with bookshelves and tables with chairs. Portraits hung on the walls along with tapestries of lions. Multiple glass windows took up space on the walls. One doorway with stairs led up and around a corner. It was comforting and cozy. It almost reminded me of the Burrow a little. 

“That staircase leads up to the dorms.”

“I reckon you’ll be in a room with Hermione and Ginny, but you’ll have to ask her.” George glanced around the room with a smile. 

The common room was empty when we first came in, but a few students had walked in after we did and had sat down at the table and in chairs. 

“Okay, this is cool!” I was still surprised at how nice the common room looked. 

“Curfew is in two hours, so you have some time to go find Juliet or whatever you wish to do.” It was going to be difficult if I wished to walk around this castle alone but it was worth it. I needed to get as familiar with this castle as I could so I wouldn't be late to classes this week. 

“Okay sweet, thanks guys! I’m gonna go wander around a bit. I’ll be back within the hour.” I turned around to walk out the door while some students walked in. 

“Don’t get lost!”

“And don’t get caught by Snape if you’re out too late!”

“I don’t even know who that is, but okay!” I didn’t hear any other reply from them, so I walked out the portrait and made my way down through the moving stairs.

There were a lot more students out now, moving around before curfew and hanging out with their friends. Most students hung out with people in the same house as them and the only way I could tell was because of their ties. 

I had walked down a few dark corridors that sided with the darkness of the outdoors. The flames on the side of the wall, being the only thing that could help me see where I was going, but it was enough light to keep me going. I walked around one corner to see a couple making out against the wall. My eyes grew about three times in size and I quickly turned around without them even realizing I was there. 

Yikes. 

I found my way back to one of the better lighted halls in the castle that was more populated. A group of Hufflepuffs were standing around in a group, talking and laughing. There were other groups of students around the hall, some walking through, others stationed in their spot.

As I walked past the group of yellow tied students, I heard one of them attempt at a whisper and say, “Oi, isn’t that Diggory’s girl?” I almost stopped in my tracks at the comment he had made. 

Another one chimed in, “You mean the new girl?” 

They talked like I couldn’t hear them, but I definitely could. I took everything in my body to keep walking and not turn around to look at them. I looked down the hall to see the same girl from the train, glaring at me with her friends around her. What had this girl's knickers in a twist?

“Hey, hold on!” I heard footsteps running up beside me and I was oblivious that I was being talked to until a presence stopped at my side. I looked up to see a boy with brown hair trying to walk at the same pace as me. I gave him a questioning glance.

“Hello?” I had no smile on my face as I was very confused as to who this boy was and why he was talking to me. 

Adeline Finley right?” I was almost about to ask how he knew my name until I remembered that everyone in the castle knew what my name was since it was announced earlier. 

“Uh yeah...can I help you?” He was staring at me and making me uncomfortable. He broke out of his trance when I raised my eyebrows up at him. 

“Oh sorry-sorry. I just wanted to introduce myself, I’m Pierre McCoy. Friends with Cedric.” I immediately remembered him as the boy on the train when Malfoy was being rude. 

“Oh yeah I remember you. Nice to meet you Pierre.” He seemed nice, I only hoped he wasn’t here to make fun of me about Cedric. I could take it from the twins, but not from someone I didn’t even know. 

“Have you been shown around the castle? Or are you just out here wandering alone?” He smiled and I chuckled a little. He was just trying to start a conversation. 

“Oh yeah, Fred and George showed me around earlier, I just wanted to check it out a bit more so I don’t get extremely lost on my way to classes tomorrow.” He joined in with my laughter. 

“Yeah it can be a bit confusing, especially with all the options for places to go. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.” 

I leaned towards him to whisper, “The worst thing that’s happened so far, was me walking in on a couple making out.” I leaned out and looked back down the corridor.

“Yeah that happens sometimes…” I looked back at him and we both busted out laughing as soon as we made eye contact. It was pretty easy for me to make jokes to get out of tricky situations and I was just glad he was contributing to make it easier. 

I looked back down the hall to see the girl with black hair still glaring at me and whispering things to her friends. We walked past them and she followed my every move as I stepped past her. Once we were out of hearing range I turned to Pierre. 

“Hey can I ask you something?” He looked back at me and nodded. “That girl back there with the black hair, Ravenclaw I think.” He turned around but made sure to look across the whole hall to not single her out so she knew we were talking about her, which I was very grateful for. 

“Yeah what about her?” 

“Who is she?” 

“Her name’s Cho Chang. You’re right, she’s a Ravenclaw and a fourth year. That’s pretty much all I know about her.” When I didn’t answer him he asked, “Why?” 

I shook my head slightly before saying, “I don’t know, she’s just always glaring at me and I don’t know what she’s all upset over. I just got here and it’s not like I did anything knowingly for her to hold a grudge against me.” 

He looked at me for a solid five, full seconds. “You didn’t know?” Didn’t know what? I looked at him with both of my eyebrows pointing down in puzzlement.

“What are you talking about?” 

“Well Cho and Cedric talked a bit last year and weren’t exactly dating but close to it.” Oh. So there was another girl. 

“Oh...but what does that have anything to do with me?” 

“You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking?” What was he going on about?

“Pierre what are you talking about?” He was starting to confuse me too much for my tired and now unsure brain.

“Cedric broke things off with Cho about a month before summer ended. She was into the relationship more than he was and quite frankly if you ask me, she’s kinda weird.” I stifled a laugh before he continued, “Anyways, she thinks that he ended things for other reasons, you being that reason, but he told me he didn’t even meet you till...well yesterday actually.” It had felt like at least a week since I had known Cedric and the fact that all of this was happening and I had only known him for two days, was way too much. 

“So what you’re saying, is that she thinks Cedric broke up with her for me, even though he hadn’t even met me when he broke up with her, but she doesn’t know that, and she’s now jealous of me, in a way to say things, and is holding a grudge against me?” 

I looked up at him and he nodded while saying, “Yeah pretty much.” Uhm alright. 

“Well, brilliant. Haven’t even been here for more than four hours and I already have people that hate me who aren’t Malfoy.” 

“Yeah but you can’t count Malfoy, he hates everyone.” We both laughed again. Even if this girl did hate me, at least I had made friends with someone who wasn’t in Gryffindor. 

We rounded a corner and saw Cedric in front of us, walking down the middle of the corridor. His eyes widened a bit when he saw us, but a smile grew when he saw mine. All three of us stopped in the hall when we met. “What are you guys doing?” His facial expressions didn’t come off as anger, just as general curiosity. 

I decided to speak up for the both of us, “Pierre was just introducing himself and giving me some insight on certain students.” I was meaning Cho and when I looked at Pierre, who stood around the same height as Cedric at six foot one, he smiled, remembering everything he had mentioned about Cho and her feelings towards me. 

Cedric looked at Pierre with almost a questioning look. Did he not believe me?

“I just wanted to make sure she was introduced to the best Hufflepuff gentleman out there.” He pulled his right hand up to his chest with his fingertips touching his shirt. “I also had to save her from the couples making out in the hallways down a few. A pure damsel in distress if you ask me.” Did he really just say that?

I gave him a look full of disbelief. “Excuse me, your Hufflepuff majesty, but I was the one who had to witness that, not you, and I am no where in any case, a damsel in distress. Thank you very much.” 

He leaned into Cedric and lifted his hand so I couldn’t see what he was saying, even though he was still being loud. “Better watch that one, I’m sure she’d be the one to wander the hall past curfew.” He leaned away and I just shook my head, trying to keep my smile off of my face. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be watching.” Oh gosh. There was no doubt that my cheeks were glowing red at his comment, and they both definitely saw it. How was I supposed to control this emotion? 

“Well, I’ll see you guys later. Nice to meet you Adeline.” He smiled at me one last time before patting Cedric on the shoulder and heading down the hall to where Cedric had come from. 

“How did the tour go? Hopefully the twins showed you mostly everything.” I wouldn’t know if there was something big they hadn’t shown me until I was shown it so yeah they showed me everything? 

“Yeah it was good. The common room is cool.” I hadn’t even thought about how he probably hadn’t seen the inside. 

“I haven’t seen it before, but I’ll take your word for it.” He smiled down at me, that warm smile that always made my stomach flutter. I needed to say something or I’d just stand there in the hallway staring back at him. 

“Did Juliet enjoy the tour? Well, I guess I should ask, did you provide her with a good tour?” I figured I would joke around with him a little bit to distract myself from his beautiful features. 

He acted to be hurt by my comment. “Of course she liked the tour. I give the best tours actually.”

“Oh do you now?” 

“Obviously. I’m a prefect for a reason.” He seemed proud of his role in leadership. 

“Wow! How perfect you are, Cedric Diggory.” He smiled down at me, his joking and prideful smile turning into a warm one. Like he was taking my comment in as a compliment. I mean, it was a compliment, but my intent was for it to be more of a joke. 

“Well curfew ends pretty soon so you should probably head back to your common room.” Had I really been out here for almost two hours? I told the twins I was only going to be gone for one hour. 

“Uh yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow Cedric.” I smiled at him one last time before starting off, down the hall. 

“Goodnight Adeline.” I turned around to see him standing there, in the middle of the dimly lit hallway with a small smile on his face. Part of me had the urge to walk back and hug him, but I kept my feet moving towards the stairs. 

“Goodnight Cedric.” I turned my head around and headed back for the floating steps. 

Most of my walk was a blur, the only thing occupying my thoughts was that tall boy who’s grey eyes always found their way to turn my legs to jello and his smile that almost compelled me to want to touch his soft lips with my own. Woah woah woah. Control yourself Adeline. I brought my hand up to my face and rubbed my eyes to clear my vision of the stairs in front of me. I took the last few steps up and onto the platform of the entrance to the common room. 

Bloody hell. I already forgot the password to get in. I slapped my hand to my forehead. What was I supposed to do now? If I knocked, would anyone inside hear? Or even come to the door for that matter. Do I wait? Do I ask the lady in the painting if she recognized me and let me in? Much to my relief, I heard voices coming from below me. I looked out over the ledge of the platform to see three Gryffindor boys that had sat close to Ron, Harry and Hermione at dinner. 

The staircase they were on, ascended further into the air until it connected with the platform that I was standing on. They all gave me puzzled looks. 

“I uh....I forgot the password…” One of the boys had longer, brown hair and big front teeth, he seemed very shy. The second boy had short brown hair and he was the shortest out of all of them. The third stood tallest. He had darker skin with dark hair. He was the only one who wore a smile. 

“Oh that’s alright. Neville here forgot it all the time in first year.” The tallest boy patted the one with the longer hair on the back, before walking to the front of the group, past me, towards the portrait. 

“Hey that’s only because it was a difficult name for me to remember!” As shy as he was, he seemed like he needed to prove his side of the story. 

“It wasn’t that hard.” The shortest boy snickered, his Irish accent coming out very thick. 

“The password is Caput Draconis.” I turned around to take a step forward, towards the painting. “Here, you say it so it’ll help you remember it.” He was being extremely kind and I was very thankful for it.

“Caput Draconis!” I said it loud and with authority, just like the twins had done earlier, and the portrait door swung open. 

“There ya go! I’m Dean by the way. Dean Thomas.” He pointed towards the shorter boy, “This is Seamus Finnigan, and that’s Neville Longbottom.” An interesting last name, Neville had. I smiled at all three of them and decided to repeat my name, even though they probably already knew it. 

“Adeline Finley.” Smiles were shared between all of us before Dean led the way through the portrait. Neville let me go in front of him and made sure the door shut behind him. As soon as I walked through the doors, I saw the twins jump off the couch and walk towards me. 

“Where have you been?” They were back to saying things in unison again. They almost seemed mad? Maybe irritated?

“I was making friends.” I pointed my chin up to hold my ground. 

“You said you were only going to be out for an hour.”

“It’s been two.”

Why were they playing mother? “Okay sorry, I know. I got talking to someone on my way back.”

“And who would that someone be?” What was this interrogation time?

“Pierre McCoy.” When they looked at each other to almost ask the other if they knew who I was talking about I answered their question for them. “He’s friends with Cedric.” Any sign of frustration towards me almost seemed to vanish at the mention of Diggory. 

“Oh so now you’re making friends with the other Hufflepuffs to get on his good side?” They were both smirking.

“What no! He came up to me first.” They continued to smirk and I was ready to jump out the window. “Is Hermione upstairs? I just want to get ready for bed.” 

I pushed past them to walk towards the stairs, not even waiting for their reply. I walked up the wrap around staircase and towards the door that was furthest down the hall. I didn’t know which door was which and there were only two options. I opened the door to another hall with more doors. I opened the first door on the left without even knocking which was something I probably should have done. The door swung open and I saw Ron in the middle of changing his shirt, while Harry sat at his desk writing something. 

“AHH! Bloody hell!” Ron grabbed his shirt and quickly covered his chest with a terrified expression on his face. Harry turned around and instantly started laughing. My eyes widened at Ron’s scared expression. I reached forward and grabbed the doorknob and let out a ‘sorry’ before closing the door quickly. 

That was clearly not the girls dormitories. I walked out of the other door that led me to their hall and closed it behind me. I looked over the railing of the walkway that seperated the girls rooms from the boys and saw the twins down below, looking up, waiting for me to look at them. They were already laughing when I peeped my head over the side. They must have heard Ron’s yelling. 

“Thanks guys.” They continued to laugh as I opened the other door and walked in. One of the doors to a dorm was open and I decided to peep my head inside. There were four beds inside that looked rather comfortable. Red sheets hung from the bed posts and the canopy that went across the top of it. 

“Adeline! We were hoping you’d find us soon.” Hermione stood up from a desk beside a bed that must have been hers. Another bed across the hall was inhabited by Ginny, her familiar red hair laying on her back.

“Sorry I took so long, I was out trying to see the castle more.” 

“Oh no worries, come on in. This is your bed.” She pointed to the open bed beside hers. My trunk was sitting on the end of the bed, my owl nowhere in sight. 

“Where’s my owl at?” I was starting to get nervous for what Finn's whereabouts were. 

“Oh all the owls get put in the Owlery. We aren’t allowed to have them in our rooms.” I guess it was understandable. 

“Oh okay. I’ll have to figure out where that is later.” I walked over to my trunk and opened it. 

“We can show you where it is tomorrow if you like?” Hermione was being very nice.

“I just might take you up on that offer.” I smiled at her and she returned it. I pulled out my pajamas which consisted of black shorts and an oversized Ilvermorny blue school shirt. 

“The bathroom is the door on the left of ours, and two down.” 

“Awesome, thanks!” I grabbed my clothes, along with a bag I had for things like my toothbrush and headed towards the bathroom. 

After I changed, brushed my teeth, and washed my face, I went back to my shared dorm and closed the door behind me. Ginny was already asleep and Hermione was pulling her covers over her body. I pulled my trunk off my bed and set it on the floor at the end of it. I would probably stub my toe on it within the next week, but I was too tired to care about moving it now. I pulled back the clean sheet, comforter and extra few blankets and pulled them up to my chest. 

“Is there a clock in here or something? How will we wake up?” This question had never occured to me until now. 

“The clock is set to go off at six thirty. Breakfast starts at seven, and classes begin at eight.”

“Splendid.” I rolled over and turned the lamp off beside my bed that sat on my own personal desk and turned it off. “Goodnight Hermione.” 

“Goodnight Adeline.” 

I felt like Hermione and I could be good friends, she was very sweet, smart, and liked books just like I did. 

I fell into a deep sleep within a few minutes. I had started to dream of running around the corridors of the castle, hand in hand with a certain boy. His signature smile glued to his face. That smile that I was growing very fond of. That smile that was pulling me in faster than I could make it stop. Something about him pulled me in so hard and so fast that there was no way I could stop it, with no way for me to control it. My heart said to let it consume me. Consume every inch of my body, and take over.


	7. 6; You'll Regret It

Ringing rang out through the dorm, pulling me from my slumber. It went off for a few annoying seconds before shutting off immediately. Hermione was already shuffling out of bed and Ginny was sitting up across the room. I looked over to the clock on the wall to see it read six thirty exactly. I let out a groan before throwing off the covers that kept me warm all night. I slid my legs out from the bed and shuddered as my bare feet hit the cold floor. 

“Well how did you sleep Adeline?” Hermione’s small smile was on her face as she smoothed out her bedsheets. 

“It was good, very good actually.” I remembered my dream and smiled to myself.

Hermione and Ginny both let out a small giggle at the smile on my face and Ginny finally asked,  
“Did you have a good dream?” 

“Yeah you could say that.” We all laughed a little before going off on our own to get ready for the first day of classes. I put on the same clothes I had on yesterday. They were clean anyways and I had barely worn them. I would get a new sweater and tie, along with a robe sometime soon too. I decided to leave my plain tie and black robe on my bed, but hoped McGonagall would have Gryffindor items for me this morning. I left my brown hair to lay on my shoulders and back. It was a little wavy and looked fine naturally, but I made sure I had a hair tie on my wrist in case I needed to pull it back. 

“Make sure you have your wand. We’ll have time to get our textbooks before classes if we need them today but we can get them after classes too.” Hermione had come back into the room and was tidying up things before she was ready to leave. 

“Okay thanks. I just have to do a few more things and I’ll be ready.” I still wanted to put a bit of mascara on, and then had to dig my wand out of my backpack. 

“I’ll wait for you downstairs.” She smiled and walked out of the dorm. I was glad she would be accompanying me to the great hall so I could be sure I wouldn’t get lost. 

I walked over to the mirror that hung on the side of the wall and curled my eyelashes before applying a thin coat of mascara that enhanced my eyelashes. I picked my backpack up off the ground and grabbed my phoenix core spruce wand before walking out of the door and closing it behind me. 

I saw the twins, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron all waiting by the door, talking among themselves. They all looked up at me when I walked in. 

“Well then, It’s about time.” Thank you George. At least I didn’t keep them waiting for super long. 

“I’m starved, can we just go to this breakfast that is apparently so amazing?” Fred was the one who said it was so good last night. 

They all turned around and followed Harry out of the common room. I lightly brushed Hermione’s arm to get her attention, “Do you know if McGonagall will have a robe and tie for me to get this morning?” 

“We can look for her on our way into the great hall and ask her for them. She should be in there handing out schedules already.” 

“Okay sweet, I’d rather wear Gryffindor attire over plain black ones.” I pulled at the plain black sweater on my stomach and she let out a laugh which I smiled to in return. 

I was still tired, really tired. This time zone change wasn’t the easiest thing to deal with but throughout the week, I should be able to adjust. We all made our way to the great hall, mostly in silence. Students were already crowding their house tables inside and were indulging in the various foods that covered the tables. I was hungry, very hungry, but I wanted to figure out my tie and robe situation first.

“McGonagall’s over there Adeline. Just go ask if she has your stuff.” I followed Hermione’s gaze across the room to the familiar professor who was talking to a few students. 

I broke off from the group and headed towards the Ravenclaw table. A boy stood in front of her, talking with her about something, but he seemed a bit upset. 

“I know that professor but why can’t I have charms during fifth class instead of second? I’m the only Ravenclaw in that class!” His voice was raised and clearly frustrated. 

“I’m sorry Mr. Parr but no changes can be made at this time, classes are full this year.” 

His brown curly hair was messy on his head, and the hood to his robe was blue. Professor McGonagall took her eyes off of him and to me. A smile grew onto her face. 

“Good morning Ms. Finley! Can I help you with something?” The boy that was standing with his back to me, turned around and made eye contact with me. He huffed and rolled his eyes before walking down the table to sit down. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” My intentions were not to be rude and I was willing to wait until their conversation was over.

“Oh nonsense, what can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if you knew how I could get my Gryffindor attire this morning? Before classes started.” I would prefer to have my items before classes started but I wasn’t sure if I could get them this early.

“Oh yes, once you finish breakfast, get Ms. Bloom and come to my office. I have them in there.” She started to turn and walk off before I could even say a word of thanks. I looked down the Ravenclaw table to see the same boy staring back at me. I furrowed my eyebrows at him before doing a full 180 and walking off towards the Gryffindor table. Eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, and multiple fruits piled high down the center of each table. 

I found a seat next to Harry and Fred. Harry smiled at me as I sat down. 

“Well, what did she say?” Hermione leaned in across the table a bit so I could hear her over all the talking. 

“She told me to get Juliet after and meet her in her office because she had them in there. Do you know where her office is?” I had forgotten over half of the places that the twins had pointed out to me. 

“It’s towards the library. You shouldn’t miss it.” 

“Okay, thanks.” I kinda wished she’d just volunteer to show me herself, but oh well. I’d find it eventually. 

I grabbed a waffle off of the platter in front of me and scooped some eggs onto my plate. A few pieces of bacon and sausage also inhabited my plate, later finding their place in my stomach. Fred was right, breakfast was delicious. After finishing off my plate, I turned around to scan the yellow table for Juliet. She was laughing with the girls she had been with at dinner last night. I saw Pierre and Cedric too. They seemed to be involved in the conversation. A pang of jealousy hit my chest, but I shook it off quickly. There was no reason for me to be jealous, they just looked like they were having fun. 

Her plate seemed to be empty but I decided to give it a few more minutes to be sure she wasn’t going for seconds. Schedules were starting to be handed out at our table anyways. One of the Gryffindor prefects was walking down the aisle and passing out pieces of parchment, full of writing. Harry got his first and I looked over his shoulder to see what was written on it. I only saw his first period which was labeled ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts’. I was stopped from looking at his schedule when I was handed my own. I read my name, then down to each five classes on the list. My first class was also defense against the dark arts. In order the rest of the classes read: Charms, Potions, Herbology, and History of Magic. 

Ron started to read off his schedule to see what classes matched up with the rest of ours. I figured out I had defense against the dark arts with all of them, along with potions. I had charms with Harry, History of Magic with Ron, and then I was all alone for Herbology. Maybe Juliet had that class. I’d have to match up our schedules soon. 

I turned around again and when I saw her plate was still empty, I decided to head over to it. “I’ll see you guys in first class, I’m gonna go figure stuff out with Juliet.” I stood up from the bench and they all either smiled or verbally said goodbye.

I tripped over Fred’s foot that was sticking out from under the bench. I stumbled a bit before I had the chance to lose complete balance, which gained instant laughter from him. “Seriously Fred! It’s not even eight in the morning yet. Give a girl a break!” A few people around us busted out laughing. I shoved the back of his head before taking a few steps to the table across from us.   
`  
Cedric and Pierre had their backs to me, but Juliet saw me instantly and motioned for me to sit down. Both boys turned around and before Pierre had time to move to a side, Cedric pushed him to the right with his body. “Hey Adeline.” His morning voice was raspy but something about it was nice. I smiled at them all and took a seat beside Cedric. 

“Morning. Jules, we have to go find McGonagall's office in a bit to get our ties and new robes.”

“Okay we can leave soon. Did you get your schedule?” I handed it across the table and she scanned it with both girls next to her looking at it too. “Oh, okay we have everything except for charms.” She handed my schedule back and I folded it up before pushing it into my pocket. 

“I have charms with Harry, so that’s fine.” Cedric shifted next to me and I looked up at him. He was staring down at the crumbs on his plate, an empty expression on his face. I looked over to Juliet, but she wasn’t paying attention. 

“Well Adeline, how was your first night at Hogwarts?” Thankfully Pierre interrupted the awkward tension that was rising at the table. He leaned around Cedric to look at me.

“That bed is one of the most comfortable things I have ever slept on.” My mind immediately flashed through the dream I had last night. His hand in mine as we ran through the castle, his warm smile and soft lips. The way he looked at me made me ready to collapse on the spot.

“Adeline?” I shot my far off gaze away from the bread on the table and back to the Hufflepuff’s in front of me. Not only Pierre was looking at me, now they all were. 

“Sorry, what did you say?” Pierre scoffed and Cedric had a small smile on his face. 

“I asked who you’re sharing a dorm with.” 

“Oh, just Hermione and Ginny.” I wasn’t super comfortable with them but I knew I would warm up to them more and we’d all be good friends. 

“Did you guys have a party in your common room or a welcome back thing? I heard the Ravenlaw’s did something like that.” One of the girls next to Juliet asked me. I didn’t hear about a party.

“Not that I know of, but…” I busted out laughing, remembering what had happened last night. They were all looking at me with puzzled looks on their faces, along with anticipation. I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one at the Gryffindor table could hear me before I continued. “I accidentally..” I started laughing again and a smile grew on Cedric’s face as he watched me. “I accidentally walked in on Ron changing his shirt and he screamed like a little girl.” They all burst out laughing with me. For ten seconds straight we all just laughed. Our only mistake was that we all turned around to look at Ron at the same time and he noticed it. As soon as I made eye contact with him, I whipped my head around fast, back to the other side of the room. Cedric and Pierre had done the same thing and when I looked over at them, we all started laughing again. 

“Why were you in their room?” Juliet was almost suspicious. 

“The twins weren’t giving me any help with which dorms were which and Ron and Harry’s room was the first door that I opened.” We all laughed a bit more. It was stupid of me to not have knocked last night but it was too late now, and it was a good story to tell. 

“Anyways, Jules, we should probably go find McGonagall's office so we aren’t late.”

“Yeah for sure. See you guys later.” We both stood up from our spots opposite of each other. 

I turned around back towards the Gryffindor table and directed my statement at the trio. “If I’m not in defense against the dark arts ten minutes before it starts, do me a favor and come find me.” Harry and Hermione smiled at me with a nod, but Ron just looked at me. He was probably confused as to why all of us had been looking at him and laughing. He’d probably find out later. 

I turned towards the Hufflepuff table one last time and lightly brushed my hand across Cedric’s shoulder which made him look up fast. I don’t even know why I touched him but his smile made me hide the regret on my face. I kept walking and waved bye to them, which they all returned with grins. I walked down the aisle and met Juliet at the end. We walked out of the doors and into the halls, searching for McGonagall's office. 

“When did you meet Pierre? He seemed to know you.” She broke the silence of the quiet hallway.

“Oh, he introduced himself yesterday when I was walking around the castle. He’s nice.” He did seem like he would be a good friend, especially since he talked to me this morning too.

“That’s nice of him. I think him and Cedric are like best friends.” They did seem super close. It was cute, if anything. Everyone needs at least one person they can trust in. Trust their life with. Mine was Juliet. I trusted her with everything. 

“Hey I think that might be it.” I pointed to a door that was slightly ajar. I walked towards it and tapped my knuckles on the door, causing it to open up a bit more. There was a warming fire against a back wall, a desk positioned in front of it. 

McGonagall looked up from her desk, “Oh good morning girls.” She stood up from her chair and walked over to a tall wardrobe. “Come over here, I need to make sure these robes fit.” Juliet and I walked over to her as she pulled out two black robes, one with a yellow hood, the with a red hood. “Here, put these on.” I grabbed the red one from the hanger it was on and stuffed my arms through the holes. It reached all the way to my ankles, but it wasn’t too long for me to trip over. Although, me being me, I’d probably end up tripping over it sometime anyways. 

“I think it’s okay.” I looked down to see Juliets was a bit longer than mine was.

“Oh, we can get that fixed in a few days so it isn’t a tripping hazard, but for now they’ll do. Here are your ties.” She handed us our house striped ties. “Now go put those on and head off to classes. Wouldn’t want to be late on your first day.” She shooed us out of her office with her hands and closed the door behind her. 

“Well, that’s that I guess.” I looked at Juliet and laughed which she returned. 

“There’s a bathroom down the hall that we can put our ties on at. At least I think there is.” 

We made our way down the quiet hall and into the bathroom to put on our ties. Once we had our robes situated, we headed to defense against the dark arts. There were a few students inside, three of the boys being the ones that helped me into the common room last night. The tallest one, Dean, looked over at me and smiled.

“I see you got your robe and tie.” The other two boys that were with him looked up at me. 

“Yeah, we just got them from McGonagall.” I pointed my head to the side so they would acknowledge Juliet. 

It looked like he was going to say something but he was cut off by someone else coming into the room. Someone I dreaded to see in this class. He walked in with two other boys behind him. All of them in green and black Slytherin robes. They were laughing at something and stopped right behind Juliet and I. We both turned around in the aisle. He looked at us both up and down before scoffing. “Couldn’t find robes that actually fit you mudblood? Might as well trip over them and fall now.” He was looking right at Juliet when he said it and my blood started to boil. His friends let out snickers behind us which only made me angrier. 

“How about I push you down the stairs and we’ll watch you fall.” I had taken a small step in front of Juliet like I was going to protect her from him, but she stayed with her face held high. 

He scoffed and folded his arms across his chest. “I’d like to see you try little mudblood.” I lost control of my arms at my sides and brought them up to his shoulders and shoved him hard. His arms fell out of their folded position and flew around while he tried to catch himself, but his friends behind him held him up. 

“Want me to do it again? Or are you gonna learn to shut your mouth?” I had taken a few steps forward and he took a few back. Anger was pouring through my words, and a bit of fear mixed with surprise was on his own face. 

He went to take a step towards me this time and before any insults could leave his gaping mouth I pushed him again. “If you call either of us a mudblood again, you’re gonna regret it.” 

He stared at me with disbelief, his friends sharing the same look of quiet shock. Every eye in the room was on me, including the eyes of Hermione, Ron, and Harry who had just entered the room in enough time to see everything go down. I knew the blonde boy in front of me wasn’t going to say anything else, so I turned around and walked to an empty desk on the other side of the room. I didn’t grab Juliet’s arm or anything because I knew she would follow. 

I didn’t even bother to pull out the bench at the two person desk. I just shoved my legs through the gap and sat down forcefully. I was mad. Juliet sat down a few seconds later and didn’t say a word to me. She wasn’t scared of me, she was just giving me time to cool down. I sat there, staring at the table and fiddling hands while adjusting the one ring on my middle finger. After almost a minute of silence I took a deep breath and looked to the left towards Juliet. 

“I’m sorry.” I looked back down at my hands again. I had almost whispered it and was starting to think she hadn’t heard me when she quietly responded.

“It’s okay Adeline. You’re just standing up for us, and there’s nothing wrong with that, maybe just try not to be so physical about it.” 

“I know, I just get so frustrated and can’t control it.” I looked away from my hands and across the room where my eyes met with Malfoy’s. He looked away quickly and I internally smiled at how he was now afraid of me. 

I looked up at Juliet and she had a comforting smile on her face. “As long as you don’t get yourself expelled, you’re free to do whatever you want. I can’t stop you.” A smile grew on my face and I knew she wasn’t mad at me. 

The classroom door shut behind us and my attention was brought to the limping man from last night. Something about him was just off. He walked to the front of the room and as my gaze followed him, I realized that all the desks had been filled up with students. They must have come in when I was staring at the table. 

“Alastor Moody.” He wrote his name on a small chalkboard at the front of the class. “Ministry malcontent. And your new defense against the dark arts teacher. I’m here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end.” What the bloody hell. “Any questions? When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?” 

Why was he teaching us about the curses on the first day of school? And why were they the unforgivable curses?

“Three sir.” Hermione answered his question from the desk in front of us. 

“And they are so named?” This topic was clearly uncomfortable for some but he didn’t seem to care. 

“Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of them will…” Hermione’s voice cracked with certain words and then trailed off. I didn’t know why she was still answering his questions if they made her uneasy. 

“Will earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now the ministry says you’re too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you’re up against, you need to be prepared, you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk Mr. Finnigan.” Everyone’s gaze, including my own, found its way to the desk a few behind me where Seamus was sitting with Dean. 

He moved his hand out from the underside of the table and turned towards Dean to mutter, “Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head.” I almost laughed out loud and had to cover my mouth with my palm to stop myself. 

I turned around in enough time to duck fast from the piece of white chalk that the professor had thrown. He missed his intended target of Seamus and it hit the back wall instead. 

“So, which curse shall we see first? Weasley!” All eyes went to the middle row where Ron and Harry shared a desk.

“Yes…” His reply was very quiet and he was visibly nervous to be called on.

“Stand. Give us a curse.” This man was a bit forceful if you ask me.

Ron stood up hesitantly,“Well, my dad did tell me about one…The imperious curse.” 

“Ahhh yes, your father would know all about that.” What was that supposed to mean? “Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why.” He popped open a jar on the front table and a weird insect floated out of it. 

“Hello. What a little beauty.” This man was a complete nutter. Who calls a weird spider-like insect like that a beauty. He used his wand to make it float around the classroom. “Don’t worry. Completely harmless.” Yeah harmless my ass. Everyone around the room was on the edge of their seats in discomfort. It floated around the room and landed on different students' heads or on their faces. 

Half the class was laughing, the other half just looked uncomfortable. “But if she bites....she’s lethal!” It landed on one girls hand across the room and I watched as Malfoy broke out laughing. “What are you laughing at?” The insect was flown to Draco’s face where he was cringing and telling his companion to get it off. 

I laughed a bit at his discomfort, but once I heard professor Moody’s laugh I stopped. This man was a complete psycho. 

“Talented isn’t she? What shall I have her do next? Jump out the window? Drown herself?” He took the insect off Draco’s face and it floated above a bucket of water until he brought it back to his hand. “Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did you-know-whose bidding under the influence of the imperious curse. But here’s the rub, how do we sort out the liars? Another, another. Come on! Come on!” He was waiting for students to raise their hands and a few did but I kept mine down. No way was I gonna answer this nutter's questions. “Longbottom is it? Up.” 

I watched Neville at the front of the room reluctantly stand up. 

“Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for herbology.” This man was making Neville extremely uncomfortable and it was making me nervous for what he had planned. 

“There’s the um...The cruciatus curse.” I felt bad for Neville, if I was in his position, I would have gone and sat back down. 

“Correct! Correct! Come come. Particularly nasty. The torture curse.” He motioned for Neville to step up to the table where the bug was standing. 

The professor whispered the curse and the insect started wriggling under the spell. It was squealing and making noises and it felt like the air got sucked out of the room by the reaction from the students. Neville was motionless and frozen where he stood. His back was turned to me so I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but Hermione spoke up for him. 

“Stop it! Can’t you see it’s bothering him, stop it!” She was practically yelling at the professor, but I was fine with it. If it would have been Juliet up there, I would have done more than just yell. 

Moody stopped torturing the bug and looked up at Neville. He picked the bug up and carried it over to Hermione’s table and set it on the corner of the desk. “Perhaps you could give us the last unforgivable curse Miss Granger?” 

Her head was turned away from him and she shook her head to the side. 

He whispered the killing curse and the small noises it was making instantly stopped. Well alright then. I wasn’t affected by it much because it was just a bug, but most of us in the room were still unsettled. 

“The killing curse. Only one person is known to have survived it. And he’s sitting in this room.” Moody walked over and stood right in front of Harry’s desk, looking down at him. Now it was Harry’s turn to be uncomfortable. I wasn’t even the center of attention and I wanted out of the room just as much as he did. 

The rest of the class time went by unbearably slow as we did reading out of the textbooks we were given. Once the bell rang out that class was over, Neville darted out of the classroom in front of everyone else. Most of the students stayed silent as they packed up their stuff and left. First day of classes and this is how it has to start?

I had made my way out of the classroom with Juliet. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were a few steps ahead of us. Draco and his goons had sped up when they saw us, to get out the door before we did. 

“Brilliant isn’t he! Completely demented of course. Terrifying to be in the same room with him, he’s really been there you know.” Ron talked about Moody like he was his idol. It made me cringe. 

“There’s a reason those curses are unforgivable, and to perform them in a classroom. I mean did you see Neville’s face?” Hermione stopped on the stairs when she realized the boy she was talking about was standing there, staring out the window. “Neville?” 

I was pushed to the side by a black jacket and was about to tell the person to watch it when I realized it was professor Moody. I quickly shut my mouth. 

He placed a hand on Neville’s shoulder and said, “Son. You alright?” Neville silently nodded and turned around, away from the window. “Come on, we’ll have a cup of tea. I want to show you something.” 

They walked back up the stairs towards the classroom. The rest of us descended down the stairs towards our next classes. 

\---

“Harry, who’s the teacher for this class?” Harry and I had broken off from the rest of the group to head towards the other end of the castle for Charms. 

“Professor Flitwick.” He was pretty short with his responses and this was the first time I’d actually talked to him. “Look, I saw what you did to Malfoy.” 

I looked up at him as we walked down the last corridor to the classroom. “Yeah, and? He keeps calling Juliet a mudblood and I'm tired of it.” I couldn’t tell if he was going to tell me to stop insulting Malfoy or what. His expression was hard to read. 

“No yeah I know, he always gets on my nerves and it’s about time someone stood up to him. I thought he called you a mudblood too?” 

“He does, but it doesn’t affect me because I’m not. I’m a pureblood, but that doesn’t make me superior to everyone else.” I was telling the truth. It didn’t matter what your blood status was, at the end of the day, we’re all still witches and wizards, and we all bleed the same color. 

Harry didn’t say anything, so I just let the silence consume the conversation. We stopped at an open door and Harry walked in first. There was a small man walking around the front of the classroom. He looked up when he saw us come in.

“Potter. Finley. Sit at this table.” He motioned towards the middle aisle of desks. These tables had three seat options instead of two. Most of the other tables were full. Harry took one of the aisle seats and I sat in the middle spot. “Parr, sit here too.” I turned around to watch the same boy from this morning walk into the room and down the aisle. 

He took his seat next to me and glanced at me, then at Harry before turning to the short man. “I’m not even supposed to be in this class sir.” Professor Flitwick looked at the boy, then down at the papers in his hand, then back at the boy. 

“Yes you are. You’re name’s on my list.” 

“But I’m the only Ravenclaw in here!” Why was this such a big deal for him?

“It doesn’t matter Parr. You’re in this class, no exceptions.” The professor turned away from him and walked towards the back of the room. 

The boy beside me threw his head onto the table and groaned. I looked over at Harry who was also observing the boy and shrugged his shoulders. 

The lesson started and we had been given group work to do. This Parr boy was barely participating while Harry read from the book and I wrote stuff about charms down. 

“No, I don’t think that’s the right answer.” Harry pointed at the ink on the paper that I had just written in. 

“It’s not yellow sparks?” I thought what Harry had just read said that the Verdimillious spell caused yellow sparks to appear from the tip of one’s wand when cast. 

“I thought it said blue sparks.” Harry pressed his finger to the book page and started skimming the reading again. 

“It’s neither. How thick are you? It’s red sparks.” Harry and I both looked up from the papers in front of us to the boy who hadn’t helped us with anything else this whole class period. 

“Wow, I didn’t know you could talk except to complain.” I faked a surprised expression on my face which made him scoff. 

“I just didn’t need to say anything, you two were doing decently on the work before you both got dumb.” He let the statement out while staring in between the two of us.

“Blimey Harry, listen to how kind he is.” I set my hand on Harry’s shoulder and he started to laugh at my jokes. 

“Are you sure you aren’t a Hufflepuff? You seem too nice to be anything else.” I laughed at Harry’s own input of jokes. 

“Oh shove off. Maybe I’m a Ravenclaw because I’m actually smarter than you two.” I could tell he wanted to join in on the laughter but was trying to cover it up. 

“We wouldn’t know because you haven’t even done any work.” All he had done was sit there and stare at the table. 

“I’ve been following along, just fine. You didn’t need my input till now.” 

“Alright smart boy, then how about you help now and we can finish this up earlier.” We could have already been done if he would have helped. 

“Fine. I’m Easton by the way.” He scooted towards me more to join in with the work. I opened my mouth to introduce myself but he cut me off. “I already know who the two of you are.” 

“Uhm, okay.” I turned back to the sheet in front of me and asked the next question. “What is the incantation for the shield charm?” 

“Protego.” I looked up at Easton who didn’t even give a second to think. 

“Brilliant.” Harry looked up from the book and pointed for me to write it down. When I just looked at him he added, “It says it right here, write it down.” 

“Okay, okay.” I wrote it down and we went through the last few questions of the worksheet before the bell rang. I handed the sheet to professor Flitwick before following Harry and Easton out the door. 

“Don’t we have potions next?” Harry was going in a different direction than I thought was the right way. 

“Yes but this way is quicker.” Easton stayed walking with us so he must have potions with us too. Harry led us through a corridor I hadn’t been down and then down a flight of stairs. A few students were walking around and entering a classroom. I saw a flash of red hair and hoped it was Juliet. 

As I went to walk through the door, I tripped over my robe for the first time all day. I fell into Easton’s back and he turned around while I was fixing my now uneven robe. He blankly stared at me and when I looked up I quietly said, “sorry…” he scoffed and turned back around. He wasn’t being rude, it was just a general, funny scoff. He seemed like he could be a good friend. It would benefit to have another friend in another house, especially one that had a girl who was out to ruin me.


	8. 7; Careful

This classroom was stuffed with students. Now I knew what McGonagall meant when she said classes were full this year. There was no teacher yet, but there was still a few minutes till class was supposed to start. 

“Ronald, scoot over. The bench isn’t big enough for you to take up all the room!” Hermione was scolding Ron for sitting in the middle of the long bench in front of the desk that all six of us had to scrunch up at. 

“Why’s she always so bossy?” Harry laughed at Ron’s comment and I smiled.

“Well maybe if you didn’t take up the whole bloody bench, she wouldn’t have to tell you to move.” Ron looked at me with a straight face, but Hermione enjoyed my comment. I had Easton sit with us since he didn’t seem to know anyone else in the room. I saw a few blue hoods, but I got the impression that Easton wasn’t friends with them.

The door slammed behind us and all heads turned to watch a man in long black robes walk down the row between the desks. He reached the front and dramatically spun around facing us. He looked down at Juliet and I, his eyes staying on mine longer than Juliet’s. If we could have chosen any other desk to sit at in the whole classroom, I would have preferred it over this spot at the very front. 

“Miss Finley. Miss Bloom.” His voice was the most monotone sound I had ever heard. “Welcome to Hogwarts.” His gaze finally left our faces and he scanned the room. I turned my head to look at Juliet. I widened my eyes and lifted my eyebrows at her and she shrugged her shoulders. 

“For those of you who don’t know, I’m professor Snape. In my classroom, there will be no talking when I’m talking. This is a potions classroom. Not social hour. You are expected to do the work I give you. No exceptions.” This guy seemed like the strictest teacher out there. Most of my professors at Ilvermorny were a lot more laid back than this. 

“I’ll assign you with your lab partners in a few moments. You will be paired up with someone from another house.” Oh dear Merlin. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d let me pair up with Juliet since we’re new, but what were the chances of that. “You all need to get potions textbooks from the library tonight and have them by tomorrow.”

He scanned the silent classroom before pulling a sheet of paper off of his desk. “I’ll put you into pairs now and once I do, go sit with your partner. These will be your partners for the rest of the year, no exceptions.” Whoever my partner is, better be good.

“Potter, you’re with Chang.” Wait she was in this class too? I turned around and watched Harry walk to her shared desk. “Weasley with Crabbe.” He went through the list with a bunch of names I didn’t recognize. Hermione had been paired up with another Hufflepuff girl and left the desk with Juliet, Easton and I left. I was half paying attention until I heard two names and nearly fell off the seat. 

“Malfoy and Bloom.”

“What! No!” I practically yelled it. 

“Excuse me, Miss Finley.” I probably shouldn’t have said that. 

“Sorry, nothing.” He looked away from me and continued on with his list. I looked up at Juliet and then over at Malfoy who was staring at the two of us. 

“I’ll talk to him.” I was willing to be partners with Malfoy if it meant Jules didn’t have to.

“Adeline no. It’s fine.” She got up before I could say anything else and sat down at the desk with that white haired boy who made my hands turn into fists. He watched her all the way to her seat and while she sat down, he looked at me. A small smirk grew on his face and if no one else was around, I would have walked over and slapped it off his face. 

“Finley with Parr.” I took my glare off of Malfoy and looked to my other side where Easton sat.

“Well at least we don’t have to move.” When I stared at him blankly, he shrugged his shoulders and looked back towards the front of the room.

“There is a review sheet on your desk. Complete it and then set it on my desk when you’re finished. Work with your partner on it.” There was a space between every blank word that came out of his mouth. 

Easton grabbed the parchment off the corner of the desk and slid it in between us. I turned around to watch Juliet do the same while Malfoy just sat there. She looked up at me and mouthed the words ‘I’m fine’ before looking down at the sheet in front of her.

“Adeline.” I whipped my head back around to look at Easton. “We need to focus on this. Quit staring at Malfoy.” 

“I’m not staring at him! I’m making sure he doesn’t do something.” I was expecting Malfoy to do something to Jules but I didn’t know what. 

“I’m pretty sure she’s fine.” He didn’t know about the incident in defense against the dark arts and even if he did, I don’t know if he would have said anything different. He pulled the bottle of ink and feather away from the middle of the table and set it in front of him. “Now I’ll write but you have to contribute too. I’m not doing this all on my own.” 

“I will, jeez.” I turned around one last time towards Juliet who was writing before turning half of my attention to the worksheet. 

It was a bunch of review questions that we didn’t need a book for. One of the questions that we didn’t have an answer to was easily answered by Hermione after I had leaned across a few tables to ask. 

“Last question. What potion has Valerian Sprigs in it?”

“Forgetfulness potion.” Easton already knew the answer and was starting to write it down before I answered. 

“Okay done. Go put this on his desk.” When I tilted my head in an annoyed look he said, “I did all the writing, you can take five steps to turn it in.” 

I grabbed the corner of the sheet of parchment and slid my legs out from the desk and walked up to Snape’s desk. “Finished already?” He grabbed it from my hand and skimmed over it. “Good job Miss Finley.” His voice still held no emotion.

“Thank you professor.” I wanted to leave the empty conversation and walked back to my desk to sit down. 

The next few minutes of class went by fast while I talked to Easton about our schedules and then he brought up quidditch. 

“Have you ever played before?” 

“I’ve been a stand in a few times for my house team at Ilvermorny but I haven’t officially been on a team before.” I needed to talk to someone in gryffindor to figure out how to get a tryout. 

“You should talk to the Weasley twins. They’ve been beaters ever since their second year. And if you make the team, you’ll be able to play against me.” A smug smile grew on his lips.

“You play quidditch?” I didn’t expect him to play. He seemed like more of the nerd type.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing. Yes I play!” He was getting defensive now, almost like he was actually upset.

“Okay, sorry. I’ll be sure to make the team so I can beat you.” The bell rang and I started to stand up before he could counteract my comment. I saw Juliet standing from her desk and watched as Malfoy laughed at something. He better not be laughing at her. She said something back to him before walking towards me, meeting me in the aisle. 

“Are you okay? Did he say something to you? I’ll-” I was talking so fast she had to interrupt me. 

“Adeline! I’m fine, chill out.” She seemed like she was fine but I knew she could just be saying that so I didn’t worry about her. I opened my mouth to say something else but she cut me off again. “I’m serious. I’m just fine, I can handle myself.” 

“I know you can, I just don’t want him to be a prat to you.” Someone placed a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Easton standing a few inches taller than me. 

“Adeline she said she’s fine. If he does anything else, we’ll give you permission to land your fist into his face, but he hasn’t done anything yet.” Since when was he able to call the shots.

“Exactly, thank you Easton.” I didn’t even know she knew his name yet but alright. 

“Okay, fine.” There was no point in arguing. Like Easton said, if I needed to, I’d make Malfoy regret it, I already made him sure of that.

“Can we go now? I’m hungry.” It was already twelve and I was getting hungry. We followed Harry, Hermione and Ron out of the classroom. We were some of the last ones out of the room, but we followed the groups of students to the great hall for lunch.

“I’ll see you guys later.” Easton split off from Jules and I and walked to one of the far tables. 

“You know we can eat breakfast and lunch with whoever, right?” Juliet spoke up while looking at the students. 

“We can? I thought it was all assigned by houses.” Looking out I noticed the colors of robes around the tables were mixed. 

“Yeah, we only have to sit with our houses for dinner.” 

“Oh, that’s nice.” I followed her to the same table we sat at this morning, but I saw Fred and George sitting close to Cedric and Pierre, so that’s where we sat down. I sat down across from Pierre next to George…yes George. 

“Look who it is! How were your classes?” Pierre always seemed to start the conversation first, wanting to make sure everyone got included. 

“Yeah they were alright.” I wasn’t lying. They were okay so far.

“You mean alright because you threatened to push Malfoy down the stairs, or alright because you actually shoved him in front of half the class?” I looked up at Fred fast who was staring at me along with George.

“You did what!” Cedric’s voice wasn’t a yell, but it was definitely laced with concern. I turned back around and stared at him.

I looked back at the boy who just ratted me out. “Thank you Fred. Thank you so much.” My voice was overly sarcastic and he turned his lips into a frown before turning back to his food.

I looked back at Cedric who was waiting for a reply, Pierre who had his jaw dropped with his eyebrows raised, and then to Juliet who looked uncomfortable. “What? He was making fun of us and I wasn’t gonna let him just walk all over us like that. Harry agreed that he deserved it.” I muttered the last part but they all heard it. I turned to Fred and leaned into the table to look at him. “And how did you even find out? You weren’t even there.” 

“It went around the school pretty fast.” Lovely.

I looked back at Cedric who was still staring at me. “What!” 

Pierre scoffed in front of me and then looked back down at his plate to shove his soup around with his spoon. 

“You can’t just go around shoving people. Especially Malfoy. His father could get you expelled.” Cedric did have a point, but who was gonna go tattle to their father about some girl pushing them? 

“Yeah well he shouldn’t go around calling Juliet a mudblood and telling her to trip down the stairs with her robes.” He sighed and then put his head in his hands. “Sorry, but I don’t just take insults lightly.” 

“She even told him he’d regret it if he ever insulted her again.” 

“Fred! Shut up!” He was not making this any better. 

“Hey guys! What did I miss?” The Hufflepuff girl that was hanging out with Jules, Lottie I think it was, sat down at the table with a smile on her face. It was kinda a bad time for her to come in but also a saving moment until Pierre interrupted it. 

“Oh we were just talking about how Adeline here threatened the Slytherin prince.” Why? Why me? I slammed my head on the table without hesitation and kept it there. 

“Oh...yeah I heard about that.” 

“All I’m saying is that you need to be careful with him because he will find a way to make the consequences worse for you.” Cedric’s voice was now gentle. Well, more gentle than earlier. 

“Okay, okay.” I lifted my head up and my hands in surrender. I wanted nothing more than for this conversation to end. 

I grabbed the ladle to the pot of soup and poured some into the bowl in front of me. “George, Easton told me to ask you about quidditch. How do I try out?” No way was I going to ask Fred right now. He’d probably just make fun of me for something else.

“Angelina Johnson is the captain, so you’ll have to talk to her but I can get you a spare practice uniform so you can come to the first one. She should be fine with it, we need a few more players anyways.” He kept his eyes on the food in front of him. I didn’t know who Angelina was but I’d figure it out eventually.

We all ate our lunches in a silence. The soup tasted okay, but I wasn’t concerned with the way my mouth was reacting to something that wasn’t as appealing as it once was. Cedric seemed serious about the whole Malfoy situation and he was right. I needed to calm down and not freak out so much, but I couldn’t just stand by when he made fun of people who didn’t deserve it. If he knew everything about Juliet and how kind she was, how her smile could make my frown disappear, and how she always had the perfect thing to say, he would never treat her the way he had been treating her. If only he knew how much of an amazing girl she was.


	9. 8; Reminiscing Through the Rain

The last two classes of the day went by at a faster speed than the apparition felt. Obviously it didn’t go that fast, but it was quite boring. 

During herbology, Juliet had been introduced to Neville and as shy as he still was, he seemed comfortable with talking to her. He also seemed a lot better now, than he was from his experience this morning. I still didn’t understand professor Moody’s methods of teaching. They seemed absurd.

History of magic also went by quite fast, but was a bit more entertaining with Ron in that class. He seemed like he was almost always confused in everything he did and that made situations funnier. Our teacher was a ghost though, and that did add a bit of interest to the class period. 

Ron had almost walked right through him on the way out of class and I had to push him out of the way to make sure he didn’t. From what I had understood before, walking through ghosts was extremely disrespectful, and made you have this weird feeling. Not like I was speaking from experience or anything…

Dinner didn’t start for another hour and most students had made their way into the castle since it was pouring down rain outside. I enjoyed the rain quite a lot. It was nice to listen to and mesmerizing to watch. Back in America, I would find myself reading in one of the softest chairs in my house, right in front of the window, next to the fireplace. I missed home a bit, mainly my parents, but I was really enjoying Hogwarts and everything that it had. Everyone it had. 

“So all they have to do is put their name on a piece of paper and then put it in the goblet and then that’s like their submission?” This whole concept seemed a bit weird to me. 

“Yes. And then in two days, Dumbledore will announce champions from each school to enter the tournament.” Of course Hermione knew the answer. Juliet seemed a bit distant in her own thoughts. 

Multiple students had put their names into the goblet, but only students of age seventeen or older. Hermione was enthralled with her book, Juliet was off in another world, and the twins were nowhere in sight. I wanted to talk to someone but observing others was okay too.

My head was ripped away from my arm that it had been resting on when loud laughter came through the doors. I looked up to see a group of hufflepuff boys pushing another one towards the goblet of fire. I recognized his hair immediately and my stomach dropped into my shoes. 

Despite his damp hair that had been flattened onto his forehead along with his sparkling eyes, I couldn’t help but worry. I watched as he got pushed into the age line circle, and then his small pause before reaching his hand up and putting his note in the blue flames which engulfed the small piece of paper. 

Before he turned around to leave the goblet, his eyes met mine. I couldn’t read the emotions that they held, but I was sure he could read mine. Neither of us smiled. I was trying so hard to shove down the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach and focus on how the chances of his name getting pulled were extremely slim. 

His friends, including Pierre pulled us out of our momentary trance with their cheering and hollering. He walked out of the age line and was pulled into a big group hug. Part of me wanted to be a part of his small celebration, but I was worried out of my mind. 

“Adeline.” I looked away from the crowd to Juliet who was staring at me with worry all over her face. “Are you okay? You look extremely pale.” I hadn’t even noticed the lightheaded feeling that I had inhabited or the way my palms had grown sweaty. 

“I’m, I’m fine.” I looked back out to see the twins busting through the doors. I couldn’t stay in this stuffy room anymore. “I’m just gonna go outside and get some air.” 

I never waited for a reply from her before getting off the wooden bleachers. I almost tripped making my way off of them, but stayed on my feet after a few hops and headed for the door. The twins were making their way towards where I was sitting and George stopped me with a hand on my arm. 

“Adeline are you okay? You don’t look too well.” I felt fine aside from my flipping stomach.

“I’m fine I just need some air, I’ll meet you at dinner okay.” He nodded his head while removing his hand from my arm and let me walk out the doors that would lead to cool air. 

I turned left down the corridor and headed for what I hoped was the courtyard. Multiple people passed me, but no one cared to look at me and I was grateful for that. Once I was into the open hallway of fresh air and open windows, I stopped in front of one and rested my arms on the cement windowsill. The rain fell, creating puddles all over the cobblestones in places where the bricks laid uneven. I breathed in multiple deep breaths of cold air. The breeze flew in through the open slots and blew my hair off my shoulders. 

I stared up at the sky as the rain fell, with my thoughts to keep me company. I wanted to be happy for Cedric and be able to cheer him on like his friends had but the slight possibility of imagining him getting hurt or even killed hurt my head way too much to think about. So I didn’t think about it. I thought about my parents. 

From what I remembered, Juliet and I were supposed to be getting a letter this week from our parents. I could always write a letter to them first and it was something I should do, but I still didn’t even know where the owelry was and if I went looking for it on my own I would get lost. I also didn’t want to go out in the rain looking for it now. I also needed to go get a potions textbook from the library after dinner so the letter would have to wait. 

“Adeline?” I turned around to see his flat hair all messy, his robes sagging a bit more than normal with the rain weighing them down. He continued his walk towards me and leaned up against the pillar that was right next to the window I was resting on. 

“Hey.” I let out a sigh on accident and hoped he didn’t think I was upset to see him. I was fine with him being here, he just made me think about everything that could go wrong. 

“How are you?” Did I still look sick? 

“Uh fine?” How was I supposed to answer this question?

“You just left the hall in a hurry and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” That was not helping my stomach at all. He was just being generally nice, that’s it. 

“Oh yeah uhm, I’m fine I just didn’t feel super good. But I’m fine now.” I tried my best to put a smile on my lips. 

“Are you sure?” Why did he have to ask again? Part of me wanted to slide down the wall and stare at the falling rain, the other part of me wanted to slide down the wall and stare at him. 

“Positive. But if I pass out, maybe take me to the hospital wing.” Now was a horrible time to make a joke but I didn’t know what else to say or do, so I used the easy way out. 

He let out a small chuckle which made the fake smile on my mouth turn into a real one. I didn’t know if I was supposed to say something next or if he was so I just looked back at the rain. 

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” When I looked at him confused he continued, “The rain. The way it falls from the sky. It’s peaceful.” 

“I used to always sit at home in front of the window and just watch the rain for hours. It’s easy to get lost in.” I’d have to be pulled away from my book to join my parents at dinner sometimes. 

“That sounds nice. When I was younger, I used to always run outside when it would rain and stare up at the sky and spin in circles till I got too dizzy and fell in the mud. Then when I would go inside my mum would yell at me for tracking dirt through the kitchen.” I let out a hearty laugh and he continued telling his story through his own laughter. “She would come down the stairs and her eyes would grow three times in size and she would yell ‘Cedric take those shoes off!’ and she’d run into the bathroom to get a towel while I stood there shivering.” 

Any worry that I had before, disappeared in that moment. It was just Cedric, me, and our laughing. 

“Do you know how much more time we have till dinner?” I considered going to get my potions book now so that I wouldn’t have to do it later. 

“There’s about twenty minutes till the start. Why?” 

“I need to get a potions textbook and I’d rather go get it now than later.” I still wanted to get a shower tonight too. 

“We can go get it now, if you like?” It was sweet of him to offer to accompany me but he didn’t have to. 

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” I didn’t want him to feel obliged to come with me. 

“I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do Adeline.” Blimey that sent butterflies into my stomach. 

I smiled up at him and turned away from the window while saying, “Off we go then.” He let out a small laugh and marched down the hallway with me. 

Once we reached the door, he sped ahead of me to open it up and then bowed down to me while saying “Ma lady” in a deeper voice. 

I faked a curtsy while saying, “Thank you kind sir.” In a higher preppy voice as I walked through the door. 

“I have no clue where this book is supposed to be.” We walked down multiple aisles of towering bookshelves, each taking a look at the names on the spines of the covers of endless books. “Should we just ask someone where it would be?” 

“Well what’s the fun in that? I thought you were all about exploring.” I turned around and walked up to him.

“I’m always down for an adventure Diggory, but I’m not sure if you can consider this musty old library an exploring opportunity.” The library was beautiful and I would enjoy studying in front of one of the stainless glass windows, but it was very dusty.

“Anything can be an adventure if you make it one.” He smiled and grabbed my hand before leading me down the aisles at a faster pace than I figured was probably allowed. 

“I don’t think we can see the book titles at this speed.” I was trying to keep up with him, but I also didn’t want to get in trouble.

“We can look for the book later, there’s something I want you to see.” I was intrigued with whatever he was talking about, but confused looks came from the few people that were seated inside at different tables. 

We stopped in front of two doors that had colored glass covering the front of them. He took his free hand and pushed down on the long handle before pushing both of the doors out into the sunset colored sky. He kept his hand in mine and led me out onto a balcony that looked out across green hills and a huge lake. The view was breathtaking. 

“Wow.” I was amazed at the landscape in front of me. The sky was various colors of orange and pink out in the distance. The clouds above us were still dark and held rain which continued to fall on us, but neither of us cared. 

Once we got to the black metal railing, he let go of my hand and placed it on the top rung. I put both of my hands on the railing and let the rain fall on my head. “This is beautiful.” This single spot could very well be my new favorite in the castle. Not like I had any since I had only been here two days, but this had to top anything else available. 

“I found this spot, half way through my first year here. I was actually quite homesick and didn’t even have that many friends.” I looked up at him and he said, “I know right. Hard to believe since I’m just so popular.” 

“Oh definitely, I can’t even imagine.” We both smiled at each other through the pouring rain that was making my hair start to curl out of its flattened state. 

“I spent more time here in the library than I did sleeping.” My heart hurt a little at the image of little Cedric sitting in the library all alone with no friends to talk to. “I just took reading up as the thing that occupied my time. Then one day I found this place and came here for a while until Pierre and I became friends. Then I was able to do other things around the castle and with friends and I started coming here a lot less.” 

“Well no need to worry about losing your friends now, I don’t think Pierre’s going anywhere.” Pierre and Cedric shared a bond like Juliet and I did, and I never planned on that dying. 

“He’s really been there for me. He’s like the brother I never had.” He stared out into the sky.

“Trust me, I know the feeling.” Jules had taken that role as best friend, sister, family. Even when my parents weren’t around at school, she was there, and I never had to feel homesick. Home was never a place for me, it was a person. 

“Cedric.” 

“Adeline.” We both moved our eyes from the scenery in front of us, to each of our appearances. 

“We’re gonna catch colds if we stay out here any longer.” The sun had finished setting and the dark of night was creeping in. 

“Yeah.” There was a moment of a pause where he stared into my eyes, frozen, before he looked up and led me back into the dry library. He closed the door and turned around, smiling at me. His hair was wetter than it was before and I was sure mine was dripping at the ends. My robe felt heavy with the rain water in it. “Let's find that book and then head to dinner.” 

He walked over to a high desk where an older lady sat with small glasses that rested on her nose. “Can you point us in the direction of the Potions textbook for fourth years please?” He always used his manners and it made me swoon a little. 

“The sixth aisle on the right hand side, second shelf up.” She pointed towards a section and we both turned our heads to follow her gaze. 

Cedric nodded and said, “Thank you.” I smiled at her before following the boy to the sixth aisle. There was a section of blue covered books on the second shelf. He pulled one down and looked at the cover. “Potions, fourth years.” He handed it down to me and I looked at the cover. It was covered in a fabric material that had a cauldron faded on the top of it. 

“Awesome, I’ll just keep it with me for dinner.” I set it down at my side in one hand. It wasn’t thick or heavy.

“We can stop past your common room if you want and you can take off your robe since it's soaking wet...and probably uncomfortable to be in.” His was dripping too but he didn’t seem to care. 

“Okay yeah, I won’t take long.” We turned down the aisle and we walked evenly towards the floating stairs. There weren’t a lot of students out, but those who were, were headed for the great hall. Once we reached the platform of the painting I turned around and looked at him. 

“Cover your ears.” When he lifted his eyebrows I said, “I’m not supposed to tell anyone the password. Fred made that clear.” He jokingly rolled his eyes and turned around while plugging his ears. 

“Caput draconis” The portrait swung open and I tapped Cedric on the shoulder. He turned around and removed his hands from his ears. “Are you coming in or staying here?” I didn’t know if he was allowed to go in but he was a prefect so what would it matter. Everyone was going to dinner anyways.

“I’ll wait in the common room.” I nodded and he followed me through the portrait while ducking his head. I ran up the steps and into my empty dorm. I slid my wet robe off and placed it in front of a stove place that had a rack on it. The fire was already going, so hopefully it would be dry by morning. I set the potions book down on my desk before hurrying back out of the room. 

“Do you want to stop by your dorm and take your robe off too? You will probably get sick if you keep it on. Or I can put it up in my room. There’s a fire going up there and it should be dry within a few hours.” 

He glanced down at his dripping robes and mentally agreed with my plan. He nodded and undid the clasp on the front before sliding it off. Not gonna lie, that was kinda hot. My cheeks started to heat up and I looked down at the floor in hopes he wouldn’t see.

“Thank you.” I grabbed the robe from him and nodded quickly while trying to hide my face before running up the stairs again. I draped his yellow robe next to my red one and checked my face in the mirror to try and get the rosy color of my cheeks to disappear. My hair was wavy and small spirals along with frizz engulfed my baby hairs. I patted it down at much as I could before rushing out of the room for the second time. 

We left the common room with our black sweaters, one with yellow trim, one with red trim showing, and headed for the dining hall. 

When we reached the open doors, I realized that almost every table was full. We both scanned the tables for familiar faces and when I was about to give up, I saw waving from a table we hadn’t sat at before. I looked at Cedric who still seemed lost and nodded my head towards the group. He followed me to the same side of the bench and we sat down across from Juliet and Lottie. I sat next to Pierre, in between him and Cedric. The twins were at the table too, one next to Pierre, one next to Juliet. 

“Merlin, where have you been!” Juliet seemed a bit frustrated. Food already lined the table and everyone’s plates were full, except for hers. She must have been worried enough about my whereabouts to not eat. 

“Sorry, we were in the library.” I wasn’t going to mention the doors that led to the balcony. That seemed like a special spot now. But it wasn’t exactly my spot to share. It was Cedric’s first. 

“Oo the library.” I looked over at Pierre who wiggled his eyebrows and shoulders around. I ignored him but was asked another question. 

“And where are your robes?” I looked between the table at the twins who were smirking. That is not what happened boys.

“They’re drying out from the rain.” It was the easiest answer I could give. No one needed to know they were in my dorm, or that Cedric was even in Gryffindor common room. 

I reached forward to grab a bread roll, then a few pieces of chicken. Cedric had already started eating and Juliet was slowly starting to put food on her plate too. 

“Did Dumbledore give a speech or anything?” I hoped that if he had said anything, it wasn’t anything super important.

“Just that students of age have two more days to enter their names into the goblet before the choosing ceremony.” Pierre reminded me of my fears from earlier, but I tried my best to ignore it. I didn’t want to be upset about something I couldn’t control. It was his decision, and I had to respect that. I just enjoyed being with Cedric earlier, he made me forget everything else and all the other worries I had. 

A few jokes were passed around the hall with laughter and discussions of school. Pierre had gotten up and switched sides to bother Lottie about something, so he had taken a new seat across from me. The twin that was once sitting next to Pierre, scooted over to be closer to me. It was Fred. 

I picked up the roll off my plate and picked it apart while putting pieces into my mouth. Someone coughing from down the table made me look to see Hermione hitting Ron’s back. I watched as his mouth opened and pieces of food flew out. It was nasty. I made a sound of disgust that made Cedric look down the table towards the commotion. 

I took the last bite of my role and chewed it while grabbing the cup in front of me that had water in it. At least I thought it was water. As soon as the liquid entered my mouth, it burned my tongue and I knew it was not water. It wasn’t hot, but it had another burning sensation. I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t keep it in my mouth anymore.

I spit it out of my mouth straight across the table, all across Pierre. I was the one to start coughing now because of the tingling inside my mouth and throat. I brought my arm up to my face and repeatedly coughed into the crook of my elbow. Someone placed their hand on my back, but I didn’t know who it was. 

“Adeline, breathe.” I was trying to take a real breath of air without coughing but after letting a few more out, I stopped. I looked up to see Pierre with his eyes squeezed shut with liquid all over his face. I was almost panting because of how much coughing I had just done. 

I heard laughing from my left and saw Fred covering his mouth in an attempt to keep it in. “Fred I swear if we weren’t in this dining hall, I’d kill you.” My voice was hoarse and my throat stung. 

“Here drink this.” Cedric handed me his own cup and I took a big sip of it. I didn’t hesitate because I trusted him, and he wasn’t one of the twins. I drank half of the cup to get my throat to hurt a little less. 

Pierre had grabbed a fabric cloth and was wiping his face off while Lottie tried to hold back her own laughter at his disgusted face. “Pierre, I’m so sorry.” I honestly wanted to laugh deep down too but I was a bit pissed at how Fred was pranking me, instead of letting me help him prank someone else. 

He was still trying to contain his laughter and I pulled my arm back and smacked him across the back of the head. “You’re supposed to pull the pranks on other people. Not on me you wanker!” 

A few people had stared at me from the other tables and I wondered how loudly I had been coughing. “What even was that?” 

“Horseradish powder mixed with spring water.” He acted like it didn’t matter. 

“But isn’t that supposed to be used for the-” I cut Juliet’s guess of the liquid off by laughing. I didn’t know why I was or how to stop. 

“The laughing potion.” Fred seemed rather proud of what he had slipped into my drink, and even though I was beyond angry, I just kept laughing. 

“How do you make it stop?” I was clutching my stomach, it hurt so much from the non stop laughing. Juliet seemed slightly worried but everyone else at the table just stared at me.

“Uhm..” You’ve got to be joking. 

“You didn’t make a cure to it!” Juliet’s voice was rising. If this didn’t stop soon, I just might puke. 

“Make...it...stop…” I barely got the words out through each chunk of laughter. If people weren’t staring at me before, they definitely were now. 

Cedric started to stand up and grabbed my arm to lead me off of the bench. At this point I was just wheezing. “Someone figure out a counteracting spell and meet us by the quad.” His voice sounded a bit irritated too. 

He kept his hand on my arm with a gentle grasp and led me out of the great hall. My eyes were squinted to slits from the constant laughing and I almost ran into the door because of it. Cedric had to pull me away from my dangerous path and put his arm around my back to make sure he watched where I was going since I couldn’t. 

We finally stopped in the middle of a corridor and he stepped in front of me to put his hands on my shoulders. “Please...make it...stop.” I was gonna murder Fred in his sleep tonight if this didn’t stop soon. 

“Hopefully Juliet or someone can think of a spell to use. I’m so sorry.” I opened my eyes as much as I could and saw him looking down the corridor as footsteps approached. 

“What’s going on here?” That familiar monotone voice got closer to where my uncontrollable laughing was. 

“Laughing potion. Do you know a counteracting potion sir?” I really hoped that he had a way to help since I couldn’t even explain what was going on and Cedric had to do it for me. 

“Follow me.” Snape walked off down the hallway while Cedric placed his hand around my shoulder again and led me down the hall after the professor. We walked for a few minutes, my laughter never ceasing. 

We finally stopped in front of a door that was not the potions classroom. He opened the door after fiddling with the handle for a second and climbed a ladder that was just inside the entry. The two of us stayed out in the hallway with the only sound being my annoying laugh. 

“Drink this.” The professor stepped off the ladder and handed me a small vial of blue liquid. I didn’t even hesitate to question what it was before chugging the contents. Once I swallowed it, it took a few seconds of quieter laughter before it finally stopped altogether. They both looked at me with questioning glances until I spoke up. 

“Oh thank Merlin.” I sucked in a huge breath of air, the first proper breath I had taken in a few endless laughing minutes. 

“Might want to be careful what you drink Miss Finley.” He looked straight at me with no emotion on his face.

“I will, thank you professor.” He shooed us off with his hands and we both turned around heading back towards the hall. 

“Are you okay now?” Cedric had removed his hand from my shoulder but was still questioning if I was alright.

I avoided his whole question and asked, “Where is Fred? I’m gonna murder him in his sleep tonight.” 

Figuratively speaking of course, but I had to get him back somehow. Whether it was alone, or with some help. 

“People are still in the great hall right?” I was walking so fast that Cedric had to jog to catch up to me. 

“Yes they should be, but slow down Adeline.” Everytime Cedric would catch up to me, he would try to match my pace but would fall behind again. 

We took a few turns, I don’t even know how I knew the way to get back to the hall, but we must have been going the right way because Cedric never stopped me. We reached the end of one corridor that split off into two and I turned right not even bothering to know if it was the right way.

“Other way.” I turned around fully while Cedric stood with his arms folded across his chest. He had caught up and was waiting for me to get a decent distance down the hall before telling me I was going in the wrong direction. 

I looked up at him while I passed him and saw the small smirk on his face. “Couldn’t have said that earlier Diggory?” 

“Eh I like watching you in your frustrated state.” Oh boy. I rolled my eyes and lightly shook my head to the sides but he probably couldn’t even see it. 

I heard voices from the other side of a hallway and walked around a wall to see the entrance to the great hall. I instantly spotted Juliet with Pierre and Lottie. Pierre looked up when we rounded the corner and said something I did not hear to the two hufflepuffs. I spotted the twins walking out of the large wooden doors and sped over to them. I saw the dark freckle on the side of the first red headed boy and knew it was Fred. 

I stopped when Juliet stepped in front of me and asked if I was alright. She still looked a bit concerned.

“I’m fine but-” I walked around her to Fred and shoved him against the wall. Thankfully not that many people were around. He hit the wall, not hard, but enough for him to be startled. 

“You idiot! You didn’t even think to create a cure?” I wasn’t fully yelling, but I was definitely scolding like a mother would when she finds out her child snuck the box of crayons into their bedroom and started drawing all over the walls with squiggles. 

I wasn’t going to hit him, maybe push him again, but Cedric came up behind me like he was expecting me to. In his defense, I guess I did say I was going to murder Fred. 

“Well that would spoil half the fun, wouldn’t it Georgie?” Fred started laughing. Yes, laughing. And then George started too. This was not the time to be laughing, but the fact that they weren’t even scared to hide their thoughts stuck out to me. They truly were pranksters. 

I rolled my tongue across the inside of my cheek and smirked up at Fred while shaking my head. “Don’t expect to get away with this Fred Weasley.” I threatened him in a joking way through my small smile. My thoughts were alright being occupied by ways to prank him right back and to scare him out of his wits. With these two, it was going to be an eventful year.


	10. Chapter 10

“George please, I need your help!” I had been thinking hard the whole night about a way to get back at Fred and my best plan required him to help me. It took forever for me to find an opportunity to talk to him when Fred wasn’t around too. They were practically inseparable. 

“But why that idea? Why don’t you just sneak something in his food?” Fred had been dragged off by Angelina for something and this was my only chance to get this plan out to George while he sat on the couch in the common room before breakfast started.

“Because that’s practically what he did to me. It needs to be genuine. And I also need to find a way to film it.” I had almost forgotten that I even had my phone here and that I could use it to take photos and for music, it just had to be in secret.

“Film it? How do you suppose we do that?” I hadn’t told him, or anyone for that matter about my phone. He probably didn’t even know what one was. 

“Uhm, I have a way. You can see later, but does that mean you’re in?” I sat next to him on the red sofa urging him for an answer. 

“Okay, fine I’m in. But I’ve never gone behind my brothers back to prank him so he better not be upset with me, or I’m telling him you made me do it.” He held one eyebrow up and gave me a questioning look. 

“Okay, deal.” I shook his hand for good measure to be sure he kept the plan. “We’ll do it tonight. Be sure to get me when he’s getting ready for bed and then I’ll come in when he’s not in the room.”

I stood up off the couch and headed up to my room to put on my robe before I headed down to breakfast. Day two of classes, hopefully everything would go well.

I saw the yellow and black robe hanging next to my own in front of the burned out fireplace. I had forgotten to give Cedric his robe back last night and would just give it to him at breakfast. I slid my own robe on over my shoulders and clasped it in the front. It was all dried out from the rain and I ran my hands over the Hufflepuff robe to be sure it was dry too, which it was.

“Whose Hufflepuff robe is that?” I turned around to see Ginny brushing her hair out in front of the mirror. 

“Oh it’s Cedric's.” Her reflection in the mirror showed surprise as her eyebrows flew up and her eyes grew in size. I spoke fast so she didn’t think something else,“It’s not like that! We were out in the rain yesterday and they got soaked so I brought them in here before dinner to dry and then I forgot to give it back last night.” She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and laughed. 

“What?” What about that was funny?

“There’s a lot of talk about you two. So do you?” She finished with her hair and turned around to look at me. Hermione walked into the room and was adjusting her bed sheets.

“Do I what?” I had no clue what she was talking about.

“Do you like him silly?” I looked between her and Hermione who was listening in on the conversation.

“You mean Cedric?” 

“No I mean Draco Malfoy, yes Cedric!” Ew why would she bring up Draco. Hermione started giggling and Ginny had a smile on her face, waiting for me to answer.

I was sure my cheeks had flushed red from the topic. “I’ve barely known him! How can I already like someone I’ve only known for three days?” 

“The chemistry between you two is obvious. Everyone sees it Adeline.” I looked at Hermione questioningly. 

“What do you mean everyone sees it?” The embarrassment was rushing over me. Did everyone at school think I had a crush on Cedric Diggory?

“It’s obvious for one. The way he looks at you when you talk, how he walked you out of the hall during your laughing potion mishap yesterday, and the fact that you two were in the rain and doing whatever else yesterday for his robe to be in our dorm.” Ginny had taken a seat on the edge of her bed while she spoke about all of our interactions. Did he really look at me a certain way when I talked?

“You also can have a crush on someone when you first meet them. I heard you during the quidditch world cup tell Fred and George you thought he was attractive.” Ginny said. Did the whole family hear about that? 

There was no reason to not trust these girls. They were nice to me, and to Juliet. I could tell them how I felt. “I mean, yeah he’s attractive. He’s really sweet and kind.” The smiles grew on both their faces so I just confessed my feelings because I couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Okay yes, I think I have a crush on him.” 

Squealing surrounded the bedroom and the grin on my face grew. 

“I knew it!” Ginny was standing up off of her bed. “Don’t worry about it, we won’t tell anyone. Not that it matters though because the whole school already thinks you two will get together soon anyways.” My eyes grew twice in size.

“Are you serious? I don’t want to be the school's new gossip story!” That was a load of attention I did not need or want. 

“It’s fine Adeline. There’s been plenty of relationship stories to get passed around. It’ll be over within a week or so and everyone will be onto a new couple to pester.” Hermione spoke up. There had been plenty of relationship drama that got passed around Ilvermorny and it never lasted more than a few days unless it was extremely interesting. 

“Come on now, we should head to breakfast.” The girls headed out the door and I grabbed the extra robe and slid it over my arm evenly so I wouldn’t trip over it and so it wouldn’t drape across the dirty floor.

We got to the great hall a bit early and Juliet was not at a table. Neither was Cedric or Pierre. They were probably just taking their time getting ready and would be in soon. Harry and Ron were at a table with a lot of extra room around them. Hermione saw them first and started walking towards them with Ginny and I following. I sat next to Harry with Ginny and Hermione next to Ron across the table. 

“Good morning boys.” Hermione spoke up before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. Ron tried to say something through a mouth full of food which earned a glare from Hermione, a disgusted look from Ginny, a laugh from Harry, and a scoff from me. 

I started to grab a piece of toast off a horizontal rack when I looked down to see Easton sitting all alone, spooning himself a bowl of cereal. He didn’t have anyone around him and looked rather lonely. I knew what it felt like to be that kid that ate alone on days when Juliet was busy and couldn’t make it to meals at Ilvermorny. That feeling sucked, and I didn’t want him to go through it. 

“Hey Easton! Come over here.” He looked up from his bowl at me, and then to who was sitting with me. After a moment of what I guessed was thinking, he shrugged his shoulders and scooted down next to me about ten feet. 

“Where’s all your friends?” I thought he had been sitting with them for all the other meals. When he hesitated, my mind wandered to the possibility of him eating alone all this time. 

“Uh I don’t really have that many friends…” All of us at the table went close to silent and Ron almost dropped the food inside his mouth. I felt guilty for asking it and embarrassed for how we all just sat there and stared at him. 

I threw an arm around his shoulder and kinda shook him. “Well we are now you’re new best friends.” I spaced out each word and added emphasis to the ‘we’. 

Ginny and Hermione both had small inviting smiles on their faces while Ron sat staring and Harry didn’t seem to care that much. 

Easton looked over at me before looking back into his bowl of milk and muttered, “You don’t have to do that. I’ve been on my own for pretty much a few years now.” It saddened me to see him admitting that he had no one. Who did he confide in when he needed to get things off his chest? I had Juliet for all those things, but who did he have?

“Rubbish. You’ve got to be friends with someone, so I shall take that liberty and accept you into the greatest friend group of all time.” I was hoping that if I added some dramatic emphasis into the sentence, it would get the awkward air around us to go away. And I hoped someone at the table would laugh to relieve me of the uncomfortable situation. 

Thankfully Easton scoffed and said, “You’re annoying.” With a smile on his face. I didn’t take it to heart, because I knew that even if I was being annoying, I helped him in some way to not feel like a complete outsider. Hopefully.

“Well everyone, if you didn’t know this is Easton Parr. Easton this is-” 

“I know who you all are.” How did he know who everyone was? I slid my arm off of his shoulder and put it back at my side.

“Well, there we go.” Silence took the table back over again while we all scooped food onto our plates, or finished eating, that mainly being Ron and Easton. 

As I scooped some eggs onto my plate I started to think about how I had completely just invited someone new into our friend group when I was brand new to it as well. Then I started to overthink about how maybe they didn’t want anyone else in their friend group and how I could have just ruined my own friendship with them and how maybe they thought I was annoying and-. 

“Ronald stop!” I almost dropped the metal spoon onto my porcelain plate. I looked up to see Ron’s face starting to turn extremely red. What did I miss? 

“I didn’t mean it like that Hermione! You take everything I say wrong.” Despite Ron’s red and embarrassed face, he was arguing back.

“Maybe because you word everything wrong! Don’t be rude Ron.” Hermione shook her head and glared at him as she spoke. I seriously missed something.

I was about to lean over to Harry to ask what happened when loud shoe clicking broke me out of my question. Entering the hall was a huge group of Hufflepuffs with the ones I knew at the front. Juliet saw our familiar faces and led her group over to our table. 

“What took you all so long?” Juliet and Lottie sat down across from me next to Ginny while the boys sat on the other side of Easton. They all seemed out of breath and stressed so I had to ask.

“The alarms never went off. Something with the slytherins messing something up, I think.” Juliet spoke while they all started putting food on their plates to eat, acting like the food would disappear if they didn’t eat it fast enough. 

“I’m gonna go, see you later.” Easton stood up from the bench to leave. It was almost like he didn’t want to meet or talk to the other people at the table. Maybe he was just being shy. 

“Okay yeah, see you later.” There was no point in me pushing him to stay and make him uncomfortable so I let him leave. 

I watched him round the corner out of site from the great hall before turning back to the group in front of me. The Hufflepuffs were stuffing their faces with food like it was a relay. 

“You guys do realize there’s still twenty minutes of breakfast left, right? I think you’re shoving food faster than Ron and Harry did that morning before the world cup.” Hermione and Ginny let our remembrance giggles while Juliet laughed hard and snorted out pumpkin juice. That made the table erupt into laughter while she covered her mouth and nose in shock and embarrassment as she stared at the table in disbelief that she just did that. 

“I think you two need to focus on keeping your drinks in your mouth and not in other places.” Pierre took another bite of his food after laughing. 

"Hey at least she didn’t spit it out on you this time.” I looked past Cedric who had taken a seat on the other side of Easton, but now that he was gone, had scooted down the bench a bit closer to me, to avoid the awkward extra space. 

Before I looked at my food, something on the back of Cedric’s neck caught my attention. I peered at it harder and noticed the red liquid slowly dripping from his hairline. I brought my hands up and grabbed the back of his head and twisted it to the side so I could see better.

“Uhm what are you doing Adeline?” His head was turned from my hands so he was facing Pierre who had a very confused look on his face.

“Cedric you’re bleeding.” I used my thumb to move through his hair where I found a bruised spot of skin where there was a cut that the blood was falling from. 

“See what you did Pierre.” Lottie spoke up from across the table.

“Hey he was the one who tripped over it!” Pierre put his hands up like he was being defeated.

“Only because you left it in the middle of the floor!” Cedric accused back at him. 

“Left what in the middle of the floor?” I grabbed a napkin off of the table and dipped it in my cold glass of fresh water before bringing it up to Cedrics neck to wipe off the blood. 

“I forgot to push my trunk back under my bed last night and then ol’ Cedric here woke up in a rush to get the boys dorms up and tripped right over the trunk and splat, right on the ground he fell. But of course he has to make things more challenging than they need to be, so then he also hit his head on the leg of the other bed in our dorm.” I looked at Pierre who took another bite of food with my eyebrows raised. 

“Thanks for that wonderful description Pierre. Nicely done.” Cedric said with his voice laced in sarcasm which earned a huge mouthful smile from Pierre. Thankfully he left his mouth closed and let the chewed food puff out his cheeks.

I placed the wet napkin on Cedric's neck which earned a wince from the cold moisture. “Sorry” was all I managed to say. I had cleaned up small scratches all my life from getting random cuts that needed the blood wiped from them, so this was nothing new. 

“Okay I don’t think you’re bleeding anymore.” I set the bloodied napkin on the table far away from anyone's food. 

“Thanks Adeline.” Cedric smiled at me after running his hand over the spot that I wiped off and checked his fingers, like a reassurance for a self satisfaction that he truly didn’t have any more blood on himself. 

I looked up and Ginny, Juliet and Hermione who were all giving me knowing smirks. I rolled my eyes playfully at them and went back to eating my food. 

“Oh yeah, here’s your robe.” I pulled the yellow hooded robe off of my lap and handed it to Cedric. 

“Thank you. I forgot about it last night.” He stuffed his arms through the sleeves and clasped the clip on the front. 

“Yeah I did too, glad they’re dry though.” I couldn’t even imagine walking around all day in wet robes. That would have been a disaster. 

An awkward silence settled over the table again as some finished their food, and others stared at each other or at the table. 

“We’re gonna go to transfigurations now, we’ll see you guys later. Adeline do you want to come with us?” Hermione stood up with Ron and Harry reflecting her actions. 

“I’ll wait for Juliet and meet you guys there. North hall right?” I thought that’s where Fred told me it was.

“It’s on the ground-floor by the middle courtyard.” Crap where was that? 

“Uh, yeah we’ll find it.” I shrugged my shoulders as Hermione gave me a questioning glance as to if I really could find it before walking off with the boys following her. 

I turned back around to Juliet who was still eating her breakfast. “So where’s the middle courtyard?” I hoped Juliet would know but if she didn’t, someone else was sure to know. 

“Like I know.” Juliet set her fork down on her plate, done eating. There was still food on it but she must have been full. 

“It’s kinda over by the greenhouses. I’ll just walk you both over there.” Cedric pushed his plate towards the middle of the table as he spoke. 

“You don’t have to, you can just explain where to go from here.” He was always willing to help others and I admired that about him. 

“It’s fine, I have some extra time anyways since the meeting about- uh…” Cedric hesitated, “was last night instead of today.” Lottie dropped her fork onto her plate at what Cedric said which caused Juliet and I to jump. 

“I just don’t get why they have to cancel! Can’t they work around the tournament or just not let the champions play?” She was clearly frustrated and put her head in her hands. 

“Wait, they cancelled the quidditch season?” Why hadn’t I heard about this?

“Dumbledore decided that since the tournament would be taking up a lot of time and school resources, we needed to cancel quidditch this year. Most of the prefects agreed and I tried to talk them out of it but there was nothing I could do. I really am sorry Lottie.” It sucked that I couldn’t play this year, but Cedric really seemed to feel guilty for something that was out of his hands. 

“Yeah whatever I guess we’ll just really have to step up next year.” Lottie wanted to be done with the conversation so we let it go. 

“Are you two ready to go?” 

Pierre was the only one still eating at the table but he seemed a bit zoned out too. 

I nodded to Cedric and Juliet stood up from her spot and gave Lottie a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. “See you guys later.” Pierre nodded and Lottie gave a small smile before we headed out of the great hall. 

Walking through one of the halls, we passed a group of Slytherins. Of course Malfoy had to be leading them. I let out a groan as soon as I saw him which he must have seen because he scooted closer to Juliet who was on the right of me and brushed shoulders with her with force. I wasn’t going to let him get off with that kind of action.

“Watch it Malfoy.” I turned around to take a step towards him but Cedric grabbed my arm from my left side and pulled me back. 

“Did you tell your guard dog what I said mudblood? The clocks ticking.” He scoffed before turning around to lead his goons down the hall. What the bloody hell was that supposed to mean. 

“What is he talking about?” I looked at Juliet not in a mad way but with a look of I wanted an answer and I wanted it now. 

“Malfoy wanted me to tell you that if you don’t lay off, then he’s going to get you expelled. I was going to tell you I just never had the chance to.” She looked at the ground while she said the last part like she was ashamed of not telling me. When had he even told her this?

“How am I the one who’s gonna get expelled if he’s the one causing all the problems?” I seriously didn’t understand how his role of power was working. 

“Because his family has power and he gets what he wants. You can’t let him get to you so easily.” Cedric took his hand off of my arm while speaking. 

“Seriously Adeline, if he gets you expelled, what are you going to do?” Juliet was now focused on me instead of the floor. 

“I don’t know but-” 

“No. Our parents are counting on us, we can’t take any risks. If you leave him alone and don’t let him get to you, then he’ll ignore you and that’s better than getting you expelled from Hogwarts.” Okay fine she had a point, but how was I supposed to just ignore him when he pushed us around all the time? 

“Well if he didn’t exist then it would be easier.” Cedric scoffed at my remark and Juliet had a blank expression on her face. 

“I’m serious Adeline.” Juliet was frustrated at my comment.

“Okay I’ll try. He’s just so...infuriating.” 

\---

“The muggles have this thing called a phone. You can communicate to other people through it and document things with a camera.” Mrs. Burbage stood at the front of the classroom that was only half full, telling us all about the common things muggles had. In this case, something I had too. 

“If you turn to page seventeen in your textbooks you can see a sketch of one.” Easton and Ron were quick to open their books to see what the sketch would show.

“Blimey, dad’s told me about these before.” Ron looked at the image in surprise. I opened my book to the correct page, a lot slower than they had. Easton seemed to be a bit happier than he was at breakfast which was a good thing. 

“Class, feel free to look through the book, but be sure to fill out the worksheet to complete the assignment.” Most of my classes were doing reviews on the first day. I assumed the real work would start next week.

Mrs. Burbage seemed like a really laid back teacher and since this class only had about twelve students in it, we all talked quietly amongst ourselves. 

“What’s a television?” Easton was pointing at another sketch of a black and white box in the book. I must have really lived a bit of a muggle childhood because I knew what all of these things were from first hand experience. 

“It’s got a whole bunch of different stations on it that you can watch movies from.” When they both looked at me confused I added, “Movies are films that people make in the muggle world where they hire people to act out scenes and then it gets filmed and produced into entertainment for people to watch.” 

“Did you have a television in America?” Easton asked. 

“Yeah I did. My parents and I used to always have family movie night every friday in the summer.” I remembered all the nights we had stayed up to watch movies of all sorts. Action, adventure, even a few romance ones, but I preferred to watch those on my own or with Juliet. 

“That sounds nice.” Easton’s reply was far off as his thoughts seemed to send him into unfriendly memories. 

“Yeah nice is right. During my family summers, it’s always so bloody chaotic. Fred and George have to prank me at least once a day, dad’s always at work, and mum’s always making me do all the chores while Ginny gets off free. And it's a lot of work since Percy just moved out.” Ron rambled on about all his family struggles, but I was more concerned for Easton. He seemed really upset about something. 

We finished the worksheets just before class ended and all walked towards the great hall for lunch. I wasn’t super hungry, but I was definitely still going to eat a few things. 

When we walked in the doors, the only familiar faces I saw were those of Juliet, Harry and Hermione. Ron instantly headed to sit next to Hermione while Easton and I resumed the same spots we had that morning, with me in between the two boys, across from Hermione and Ron, now including Juliet. 

“Bloody hell, I could eat this whole table.” Ron looked like he could drool all over the table from his hunger. He grabbed handfuls of chicken and potatoes, almost forgetting to use the utensils which Hermione nudged him for. 

“Maybe don’t choke this time Ron?” I couldn’t help the joke, but I was fully serious. No one wanted to go over and perform the heimlich on him. If anyone even knew it for that matter. I did sure, but I would have had to hop the table for that and it was something I would gladly pass. 

“Maybe don’t choke on your drink this time Adeline.” That red headed Weasley had just the same amount of sass as I did. I raised my eyebrows, a bit surprised that he controverted my statement, but also humored that he actually said something back. 

Pierre sat down at the table with a huff next to Harry. He seemed irritated with something, but didn’t require anyone to ask what was wrong before changing his whole mood. 

“Hello everyone. How’s the day going?” Pierre was one of the sweetest boys I had ever met, always making sure to ask how the people around him were, instead of dwelling on his own disposition. 

“Fine, thanks.” Harry.

“Quite alright.” Hermione. 

“I’m good, thank you Pierre.” Juliet.

“Splendid. How are you?” I wanted to make sure he was asked his own question, to make sure he felt included too. 

“Uhm, well Flitwick has us all writing an essay about charms. It’s only our first day!” Pierre huffed again and reached forward for a sip of his water. 

“Is that just for your year?” Please tell me I didn’t have to write one too. I was fine with essays, I just didn’t want to write one this soon. 

“Yeah, just for fifth years. A load of rubbish if you ask me.” He set his glass of water back on the table with a bit of force that made water tip over the edge. “Whoops.” 

“Where’s Cedric at? And Lottie?” I added on Lottie to make sure I didn’t sound like I only cared about Cedric. I mean, I didn’t know Lottie enough but she seemed like she was important to not only Jules but like she was someone special to Pierre too. 

Pierre looked up at me and smirked around Harry. “Don’t worry, lover boy is on his way. He got caught up with something.” Awesome, thank you Pierre. Everyone at the table looked up at me at the ‘lover boy’ comment. Perfect, just what I needed. A bunch of attention.

“Thank you Pierre. And where’s your girlfriend...Lottie, was it?” He flushed red at my comment and looked down at his plate. Now the eyes were on him. 

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“And Cedric’s not my lover boy.” Even though deep down, part of me...well most of me, wanted something with him. 

“Oh sure, whatever you say miss I’m not in love with you, but I want to be with you every minute of every day and when we’re apart my heart aches to be within your reach again because I’m deeply infatuated with you Cedric Amos Diggory.” Pierre put his hands onto his chest in a way to be dramatic like I had done before. He was starting a battle now. 

“First off, I’m not in love or infatuated with him Pierre McCoy, and at least I don’t get shut down from calling the other ‘love’. How’s that going for you by the way? Have you tripped over your own two feet while gazing at her from across the hall?” My insult was lacking compared to his.

“No, I haven’t Adeline Finley, and it’s going great. At least I haven’t become the school's next big couple to gossip about.” I thought that was supposed to be over within a few days. 

At this moment, Harry was leaning back so far that he had almost fallen off the bench so he could stay out of our line of figurative fire. 

“Want me to announce your crush to the whole hall so then you can become the next big thing? HEY EVERY-”

I was cut off by the feeling of cold water being splashed across my face, in Pierre’s only possible attempt to quickly shut me up. A loud gasp left my mouth, with my eyes glued shut so the water would stay out of them. 

“Oh shit.” I brought my hands up to my eyes and flicked the water out of them. When I opened my eyes, Pierre’s looked like they were about to pop out of his head, and everyone else’s expressions were not in my line of sight for me to see them. From the sudden surprise, Harry had fallen right off the back of the bench and onto his back. His legs were still hooked by the top of the table, and he struggled while wriggling around, to get back on his feet. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t-I didn’t want you to say anything…” Pierre looked like he was about to get up and run away from me. 

“How refreshing. It was a bit hot in here, wasn’t it.” I tried to remain calm as my mind flew through different ways to get him back. 

I turned all the way forward and went for the spoon of mashed potatoes. “Adeline, are you-I’m sorry. Please don’t kill me like you’re going to kill Fred.” My prank for Fred was still to take place tonight. Pierre’s punishment was going to happen now. 

“I’m not going to kill you Pierre. I’m just hungry, aren’t you?” I plopped one spoonful of mashed potatoes onto my plate and slowly went for another spoonful.

“I’m starved, actually.” Pierre turned towards his own plate and went to reach for the food he had in front of him when a pile of creamy potatoes hit him right on the cheek. Thank Merlin I didn’t miss. 

“Enjoy your meal Pierre.” His expression was just about as startled as mine was when he splashed water on me. My hair was still dripping wet in the front and my sweater was damp across the chest. It would have been worse if it was on my pants and people would think I’d have wet myself. “I hear the potatoes are extra delicious today.” 

I went back for my spoon and scooped a glob of the potatoes off my plate and into my mouth. Dang, these were good.

If he would have thrown one more thing, a full on food fight would have started in that great hall, and I could have been in bigger trouble for being the one to engage it. Thankfully, Pierre called it fair even though I still had a wet sweater and the remnants of any food on his face, were easily disposed of.


	11. 10; Pranks and Payback

Classes had ended for the day and I was interested in finding the owlery. I hadn’t seen Finn since I got here and I was a bit worried that he might not be doing okay. He had been with me his whole life, and now he was alone, somewhere else.

“Hey, where’s the owlery again?” I asked Harry who was walking through the common room, up to his dorm. 

“Uhm it’s by the quidditch pitch. Right across from this tower actually. Here, come look out the window.” Harry walked over towards the tall clear glass and pointed towards a small building. “It’s right there.” 

“But how do I get there?” It’s not like I could just apparate there, even though that would have been cool, but that magic wasn’t allowed in Hogwarts. 

“Take the bridge by the clock tower.” When I looked at him with complete confusion, he added on, “I’ll just take you there. I have a bit of time to waste anyways, and I want to check on Hedwig.” He started back off for the portrait door. There was no time for me to make sure he was okay with showing me the way, because he was already nearly out the door. 

“Come on then.” Harry waved his hand towards him and I finally moved my feet towards him. I planned on doing this with Jules, but I’m sure Lottie could show her where to go. I didn’t even know where she was. After history of magic, she said something about needing an ancient ruins book and headed off down another corridor. She seemed flustered about something, but I never had the chance to ask what was up before she had hurried down the hall. 

Harry was more of a quiet boy, but I could tell he was trying to start a conversation. 

“So what’s going on with you and Cedric?” Why this of all questions. He looked nervous almost? Or he was just awkward, which was understandable...and relatable. 

“Uhm, what do you mean?” I didn’t even know what was going on between Cedric and I. 

“Well what McCoy said earlier, and I don’t know he just-nevermind. It was stupid of me to ask.” His pace quickened and I struggled to keep up. 

“Harry, slow down. I have no clue where we are and if you lose me in this unknown corridor, I’ll jinx you.” My comment made him slam on his brakes for feet. The look he gave me made me burst with laughter. 

“I’m joking. But I seriously have no idea where we are.” A smile even grew on his own face, which was nice. “And I don’t even know what’s going on with Cedric. Maybe there’s something there, but I’ve only known him a few days, so there’s no point in rushing things.” If I put it out in the open, which I did, then there would be nothing for him to question, and it was nice to make myself realize what was happening too. 

“Oh, I understand. I just wanted to tell you, well I don’t know. He’s just a nice guy. Very fair.” We started off down the corridor again walking at the same pace now. 

“Careful Harry, or you’ll make it sound like you have a crush on him.” I hoped to lighten the mood a bit by making a joke. 

His eyes grew in size as he looked up at me. “No I don’t! All I said was that he was nice and played fair in quidditch! I never said-No!” Harry was panicked like I was going to announce some unjust secret to the whole world. 

“Harry calm down, it was a joke.” My own expression was a bit disturbed at how quickly and stressed he reacted to the comment. He let out a breath of air and sighed with relief. 

“Anyways, did you hear quidditch got cancelled this season?” The topic of our conversation needed to be changed and I seemed to be the one to easily do that. 

“Yeah, I heard last night. It sucks, but it makes sense. If Dumbledore thinks that it shouldn’t happen, then it shouldn't.” Harry defended the opposite side to everyone else's opinions that I had heard today. That was new. 

“Yeah, I guess. Wait how did you hear last night?” I wouldn’t have even known if Cedric hadn’t brought it up at breakfast. 

“Fred told me last night. I’m on the team you know.” He sounded proud of his accomplishment of being on the team. 

“I did not. What position?” To think of it, I barely knew anything about Harry Potter. I had heard about the whole ‘he who shall not be named’ situation when he was a baby which was really sad, and it made me feel for him, but he seemed to be going through life extremely well. I guess it was harder to mourn someone you couldn’t even remember. 

“Seeker. I was put on the team in my first year and I was actually the youngest seeker to ever play. I won a few games for the Gryffindor team. There was this one time…” Harry trailed on about how in his second year he had dealt with a rogue bludger. It was an interesting story that took up the rest of the walk to the owlery. He wasn’t being cocky, just sharing some fun stories.

We passed a few students on the steps up to the top of the tower. Once we reached the top, there was a cement archway that led into a room full of empty holes in the walls with multiple places for the owls to rest on. It was messy and dirty, so I mentally reminded myself to never touch anything in there except for my owl who was nowhere in sight. 

Harry walked over to a snowy owl and petted it’s head. He said a few things to it quietly while I searched over the feathered animals for my tawny owl. When I couldn’t find him, anxiety rose in my stomach.

“Harry what if they aren’t in here? Where do they go?” I kept searching the faces of owls for Finn. 

“They are either out receiving a letter or sending a letter, or sometimes they go out flying around.” He didn’t even bother to look up from his own owl to answer me. 

Flapping of wings pulled my attention towards one of the open squares in the wall. There he was! I watched in excitement as Finn flew in through the opening and positioned himself on a perch right in front of me with a letter in his beak. 

“Ahh there you are!” I rubbed my hand over his head and down his back along his feathers. With my other hand, I grabbed the letter and looked at the envelope to see if there was a name on it. I saw my name with a small heart at the end, something my mother always did. 

“Wow you have a tawny owl!” Harry turned away from his owl and walked over to mine to observe Finn. “That’s cool, what’s the name?” 

“Finn. I got him four years ago. He’s the only pet I’ve ever had.” Harry put one gentle hand over the owls feathers like he needed to touch it to be sure it was real. His own owl squawked at him as soon as he touched Finn which made him turn around and walk back towards it.

“Sorry Hedwig.” He put his hand back on his own owl for reassurance that he wasn’t going to switch owls to make Hedwig jealous. 

“So who’s the letter from?” I looked up from the letter to Harry who was looking at me with curiosity. 

“I think my parents.” I was going to wait till I got back to my dorm, but I could read it now. I pulled at the paper around the seal that had the letter F on the back with gold wax. I pulled a smooth piece of paper out from the envelope and folded open the letter.

Dear Adeline,

How are you doing darling? Your father and I hope you have settled in nicely and made new friends. I wanted to write to you so you were caught up with what’s going on at home. There’s been a lot of talk between the Blooms and us, and we’re considering moving back to London. It isn’t official yet so don’t get worried about it, but it’s a possibility. Have you met any cute boys yet? If you have, I need to hear ALL about it. And what house did you get sorted into? Also, let us know if you’ve met Harry Potter yet. Your father and I knew his parents and would love to tell him stories one day. Write back soon sweetheart, we love you!

Love,   
Mum and Dad

I smiled at the letter. I missed them. 

“Everything okay?” Harry broke me out of re-reading the letter. He wasn’t trying to pry, but just to make sure there was no bad news. 

“Yeah, it’s great actually.” Even if we moved to London, I was completely fine with it. I’d be closer to my friends now anyways. Not like I had any in America. “Hey actually though-” I cut myself off. Was it weird to tell him my parents knew his and they wanted to tell him stories about the good old days? “Uh” I scoffed before looking up at him. “My mom said my parents knew yours when they went to Hogwarts together and had stories to tell if you wanted to hear them.” I hoped that didn’t come off weird.

“Seriously? That would be brilliant.” A huge smile grew across his face which brought a bigger one to mine. I was glad that first off, it wasn’t awkward, and second was that he seemed super excited about it. 

“I mean, I don’t know when you’ll meet them but I might be moving to London I guess, so maybe over the summer?” I slipped the letter back into the envelope and attempted to re-stick the seal, but it wasn’t working and I quickly gave up.

“Yeah definitely. Well, I think dinner’s soon so are you ready to head for the hall?” Harry asked while looking back at his owl.

“Yeah I’m cool with that.” I gave Finn one last pat on the head before walking down the steps of the owl tower.

The walk to the great hall was mainly quiet between Harry and I but it was a comfortable silence and there was plenty of noise around us from everyone in the halls talking. 

When we entered the dining hall through the large doors, the tables were packed. I had no clue where we were going to sit, or if our friends were already in here. I saw a glob of blue at one table. The beauxbatons girls were taking up nearly half of the table against the far wall which caused the Hogwarts students to have to bunch up more than usual. 

“Right there.” Harry pointed towards our familiar group of friends, right in the middle of a table closest to the professors. He walked around the table to find a place opposite to me. I walked down to where Cedric sat. I couldn’t see Juliet. Where was she?

“Hey!” Cedric moved over as much as he could towards Lottie to make room for me. Pierre was across the table next to Ron, who sat next to Hermione, where Harry had then sat down next to her. 

Some other random boy was on the other side of where I would sit, but I didn’t recognize him. This was going to be a tight fit. 

I picked up my feet and put them under the table before sitting down. “Where’s Juliet? Is she still doing homework?” It was very loud in the room but I managed to ask the question loud enough for everyone to hear. 

“I think so. She said she had a lot to do.” Lottie spoke up from the other side of Cedric. 

“Yeah but she’s really gonna miss dinner? Can’t she take a break?” She was probably hungry and a break could help her. 

“I think it’s good that she’s focused on school. Shouldn’t we all be? School’s about learning and that’s what she’s doing.” Hermione started rambling on which gained blank stares from the table. She really was all about education. 

“Bloody hell Hermione we get it.” Ron spoke through yet again, a mouth full of food. 

Hermione looked equally frustrated and embarrassed and I instantly felt bad. She was just talking about something she was passionate about. 

I gave Harry an awkward look and he returned it. He seemed to feel a bit bad for her too. 

The table was covered in foods like sliced turkey, steamed vegetables, more mashed potatoes, roles, and a few other options. I took an assortment of the food in front of me, bumping elbows with Cedric a few times and muttering sorry each time. 

The curiosity rose inside me again when I remembered that Cedric hadn’t been at lunch. “Hey you weren’t at lunch-.” 

“What?” Cedric leaned in to me a little to hear me repeat my question. It was pretty loud in the hall and my voice was quiet so I repeated myself without annoyance. 

“You weren’t at lunch, was everything okay?” I spoke into his ear more so he could hear me that time. 

He turned and his lips were so close to my own ear that I could feel his breath. “I just had to figure some stuff out but I’m all yours now.” Wait what. “I mean-uhm I’m all good now.” A light chuckle left his lips and I hoped my cheeks weren’t getting red. 

“Oh okay.” He had pulled his head away from mine to look at me. I smiled as a part of my response. We both returned to the contents of our food while small talk was made through some of the other people in the group. 

My plate was nearly half empty when the boy sitting on the opposite side of me finally acknowledged that I was there, which I wished he wouldn’t have.

“Hey you’re one of the new girls right?” Both of his elbows were positioned in front of him while he had his head turned to look at me. 

“Uh yeah…” I said it super quietly and looked away from him in hopes he would stop talking to me. 

“Adeline Finley right?” I nodded my head in response and looked up at Harry who was watching the events unfold. Everyone else at the table was oblivious to what was going on. 

“So why’d you move here? Tragic backstory or were you expelled from Ilvermony?” I turned my head to look at him and I noticed the blue tie he was wearing, along with his short black hair. I didn’t recognize him. 

“Excuse me?” My voice sounded a bit demanding, but it was a reasonable time for it to be. Was that another rumor going around about me? That I was expelled?

“Well did you? Transfer students never have a normal life. They’re either hiding something or running from something. Which one is it for you? Or there’s the possibility that you got pregnant an-.” 

“How dare you!” I was a lot louder that time and I received looks from a few people sitting next to him. 

“Well it’s one or the other so which one is it?” Why did he keep provoking this conversation. 

I felt an arm wrap around my waist and pull me down the bench as much as it could, away from this rude and unbelievable boy. 

“Get lost Ellery.” Cedric’s voice was deep and full of indignation. It was his arm around my waist that attempted to pull me away from the unwanted conversation.

I watched as the boy scoffed, rolled his eyes, and stood up, leaving the table. 

“Are you okay? What did he say to you?” Cedric sounded concerned and I looked across to see Harry watching me closely. He had heard everything. 

“Uhm, yeah I’m fine. He- he wanted to know why I transferred here and had all these false accusations.” Everyone in our group was looking at me, listening in to what had happened. 

“Ellery thinks he’s a know-it-all and he’s a prat. Don’t listen to him.” Cedric still had his hand around my waist and was talking with pure disgust. This was the first time I had ever seen him mad. 

“You can punch him if you wanted to and I’m sure you wouldn’t get expelled. You have permission from me.” Pierre had a stupid grin on his face across the table like he had just granted me the best opportunity I could ever receive. 

“I’m sure your permission will give me loads of help.” I noted while returning the same sarcastic smile. 

“I mean you didn’t get...you know. Did you?” Harry was still looking straight at me with a shy but wondering look.

“NO! Seriously Harry. I’m SIXTEEN!” I picked one of the roles up and threw it at him which hit him right in the chest.

“Okay, okay sorry. I was just asking.” He took a bite of the role after defending himself which caused me to roll my eyes. 

“Didn’t what?” Ron was confused, probably along with the rest of the table. 

“Uh, nothing.” Not that I ever was pregnant, but that was a weird topic to bring up and especially a rude accusation. I hadn’t done anything along the lines of that with a boy. I hadn’t even kissed one yet!

I looked down at the table and pushed my plate towards the middle. I wasn’t even hungry anymore. 

“Are you sure you’re alright Adeline? I can talk to McGonagall and-”

“Cedric I’m fine!” I didn’t mean to sound harsh, but it may have come out that way. With the boy mentioning that I was running away from something, it just brought up things in my mind like the death eaters attacking my house and having to run for my life. Things I didn’t want to remember.

When Cedric’s eyes showed a bit of hurt in them, I felt instantly guilty. “I’m sorry, I just-I’m fine, I swear.” I was fine. I would be fine.

“Okay.” Cedric was still looking at me, and I was looking back at him. I started to force a small smile onto my lips to assure him that I was okay, but when I started to get lost in his eyes, the smile didn’t need to be forced anymore. 

He was looking right back at me, eyes lost in my own. Or at least that’s what it seemed like. I didn’t dare take my eyes off his to see if he had a smile on his lips because if he did, I would have lingered on them for too long. 

“Alright, not at the table lovebirds.” We broke off our stare to look -more so glare- at Pierre who took in a spoonful of chocolate pudding. Hermione giggled before looking back down at her book and even Harry scoffed. Ron looked beyond confused, and I couldn’t see Lottie’s expression around Cedric. 

I saw Cedric fix his gaze back down to his plate where a smile returned. He had removed his hand from my waist and brought his arm back to the table. I glared at Pierre one last time. “Okay uhm, well I’m gonna go.” I looked around the room to see if Fred and George were still in the great hall which they were. Perfect timing for me to go get my stuff ready. 

“Oh uh okay.” Cedric looked up as I started to stand up from the bench. Everyone else didn’t really care, which didn’t bother me. 

“I’ll see you guys later in the common room. Don’t mind the screaming if you hear any.” Hermione looked up from her book extremely confused. Ron and Harry just stared. “It’s payback night.” A mischievous smirk came onto my face. 

I turned to walk away, forgetting to say a goodbye to any of the Hufflepuffs before I walked past George and lightly tapped him on the shoulder as a signal to get up and follow through with the plan. I was a tiny bit nervous, but more so excited to get back at Fred. 

I walked out the doors of the great hall and once I had rounded a few corners, I stopped, leaning against a wall to wait for George. I heard footsteps, and waited for him to round the corner except it wasn’t the twin I was expecting.

“Miss Finley, what are you doing out here all alone?” I could have been blind and I’d still know it was his voice from a mile away. 

“Professor Snape, uhm I’m just waiting for a friend.” I pointed towards the way he had come to signal that someone was coming. He watched me for a few seconds before turning and walking away without another word. Creepy bloke. 

While his shoes against the floor receded, a new pair came, getting louder at the second. I turned my head to see the tall Weasley twin rounding the corner. 

“This better be good Finley.” I stood up off the wall and started walking with him towards our common room. 

“Don’t worry, it will be.” A sudden question popped into my head that I needed to be sure of. I looked down to make sure there was no freckle on the side of his face, which gave me the answer I was looking for. If they would have switched up twins and pulled a prank on me again, I would have never known, but once I knew it was George, my trust for him rose a few rankings. 

We went over the plan again while we made our way to Gryffindor common room. I wanted to make sure things went perfectly. 

“How’d you get away from him anyways?” It was very difficult to ever get them apart and I peered over my shoulder to make sure no one was following us.

“I told him I had a prank idea and had to go write it down before it left my miraculous brain.” When I lacked the reaction he was wanting to receive he continued on, “And he was talking to Angelina anyways so I don’t know if he even heard me.” That gained a reaction from me. They were inseparable, always continuing each other's sentences and every thought and now Fred was letting a girl take up some of that Georgie time. 

“Oh, I’m sorry George.” I spoke softly as we reached the last set of stairs to the portrait. 

“Huh? Oh, It’s fine. Anyways, what if you just hide under the bed until he comes up because I don’t know when he actually will come in.” He said the password as I thought about it and once I closed the door behind me I agreed with the idea.

“Yeah that’s good. I’ll just have to grab my phone first to film it and once he leaves to go get ready for bed, then I’ll get set up.” I hoped I would have enough time to get up to my room and grab my phone before Fred came back.

The common room was empty when we walked through it and up the wrap around stairs. I walked towards the girls dorms right before George muttered an “I’ll leave the door open so you know which room it is.” Which I nodded to before opening the door into the girl dormitories.

Thankfully our door was unlocked and I quickly strolled over to my red backpack that was in the seat of the chair to my desk. I unzipped the smallest pocket and reached for my iphone. It was the only thing in that pocket so it was easy to grab. I pushed on the on button and it lit up with my lockscreen which held a photo of me and Juliet laughing on the grass in front of a lake that our parents used to always take us to for weekend summer evenings. The battery percentage said 100% which impressed me. Mrs. Bloom really did enchant them. 

I jogged back towards the door and closed it behind me, headed for the boys dorms. I walked through the first open door and saw a door ajar two down on the left, right next to Ron and Harrys. I pushed the door open the rest of the way to see a bedroom resembling my own shared dorm. It actually didn’t look much different except we girls kept ours cleaner and actually made our beds and picked up our clothes. 

“That’s Fred’s bed. Just hide under it until he comes in, then when he leaves you can get out and set up.” George pointed to a bed next to his with an unmade bedspread which had a few pairs of socks and a shirt laying on the ground. 

“There’s no closet I can hide in?” I started to regret the whole hiding under the dirty boys bed idea. 

“Nope! Now hurry up before Freddie comes in and sees you. I already feel guilty enough for betraying my brother.” George was sulking, acting like he was making the worst decision of his life.

“It’s just a prank George, you’re not handing him over to his death.” I said while getting onto my hands and knees to peer under the bed. A door shutting from somewhere else in the dorms made me roll quickly into the dark and dust. 

I wiggled around a bit, trying to be the quietest I could incase Fred was coming. My hand brushed against some piece of unknown fabric. I picked it up and turned my phone on with the small bit of light to see what it was. I nearly gagged when I realized it was a pair of at least year old dirty boxers. I quickly threw it behind my head where I knew it wouldn’t touch my hair.

I laid there in silence with the only sound being George shuffling around the room and moving stuff around. I laid there for a few minutes until I decided to go on my phone. I turned the brightness all the way down and went through the pictures I had in my camera roll. Most of the photos were of my family, and the Blooms. 

I scrolled past a photo of Finn and a video started playing extremely loudly of Juliet laughing. I scrolled past it so fast in the hopes no one heard it. I turned the volume down all the way and heard a whisper of “nice going”. It would probably be better if I just shut my phone off altogether again. 

“He better hurry up. It’s nasty down here.” I whispered back which didn’t earn a reply. Maybe he didn’t hear me. 

Another minute passed. A different door shut. Another minute. George dropped a book on the floor and looked under the bed at me while winking. I rolled my eyes. Another minute. Three minutes. Five minutes. Footsteps. 

“Oh Georgieeee.” It was Fred. No one else had that voice. I saw the shoes and the bottoms of the black pant legs walk up the end of the bed and then pull out the trunk a few inches away from my feet. Thankfully he didn’t bend down all the way and brought the trunk up to his mattress. 

“So George, I was thinking. What if we pull a prank on Professor Flitwick so we don’t have to do that Charms essay. We could destroy the rubric or switch it out with another, or even bring in some fireworks and mess up the classroom so we get an extra day to work on it. I’m not sure but cause a lot of mischief.” He talked while taking something out of his trunk and then setting it back on the floor and pushing it under the bed, still not touching my feet. 

“Fred, I’ve been thinking something similar to that. We can talk about it when you get back.” George didn’t really seem to have any emotion behind his words. He better not mess this up by sulking. 

“You okay Georgie?” I watched Fred walk towards his brother’s desk until his feet were out of view.

“Yeah I’m alright Fred. As perfect as ever.” Hmm that didn’t sound as sarcastic as I had expected it to come out.

His feet appeared again and I watched them disappear out the door. George got up and shut the door as my sign to get out. I slid out from under the bed and wiped off my black pants that were grey with dust. I made an audible groan at how disgusting it was. 

“He doesn’t take long so hurry up.” 

“Yeah, yeah I’m going. Maybe if you actually cleaned a little…” I shut myself up and turned on my phone and slid it over onto the camera app. I put it into video mode and placed it on a desk opposite of Fred’s bed. I doubted he would look over at it but just in case he did, I put a few books in front of it to hide most of the screen. 

I ran back over to Fred’s bed and kicked off my shoes and set them off to the side, where I knew they wouldn’t be seen. I climbed into the messy bed and shifted to one side. The side he hopefully wouldn’t get in on according to George. I threw all the blankets and sheets over my body and head while George made sure I was unseen. 

“Okay now go shut out the lights.” George’s footsteps trailed over to the door where I heard a click. I was already in darkness under the covers, so I was hoping that was the light switch he turned off. 

Silence surrounded the room for a few more minutes until the door opened and then reclosed. Did they really go to bed this early? I guess that was something we hadn’t even thought over. This was probably supposed to be their time to do homework or whatever it was that they did. 

“Going to bed early Georgie?” Fred’s voice was muffled from above the covers. 

“Yeah, I don’t feel too great. I think I ate too many treacle tarts.” Thank Merlin George was going along with this. 

“Ahh I see. Feeling a bit tired myself. Might as well go to bed early. Would you like me to turn the lamp off or is that alright staying on?” Shoot when did we leave a lamp on. Hopefully you couldn’t see my body there. 

“You can leave it on if you like. I won’t go to bed quite so soon Freddie.” 

The shuffling of feet was getting louder and closer to the bed. I heard them go around to the side I wasn’t on. George was right. 

Fred started humming lowly to some made up tune and I tried so hard not to laugh. This was going to make the video so much better. 

I felt the sheets get moved from the other side of me and the weight of someone sitting down almost made me roll into the middle. I could tell his feet were slid in towards the end of the bed and he was already laying down. There was no opportune moment to do this, so I just had to go for it. 

I waited for a few seconds until he had stopped moving around and was laying there silently. I started counting in my head so I would make sure I would startle him. I was starting to get nervous but I couldn’t just stay there silently all night. I had to do this. 

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine…ten.

“So Fred I was-” I could barely even get the words out without laughing but his loud scream echoed throughout the room along with the loud thud of his body hitting the floor. The covers were pulled off of me completely from them still being wrapped around his own body which was now on the floor. 

There was no point in hiding my laughter now. I peered over the side of the bed at his shocked face and chest heaving up and down. I fell onto my stomach continuing to wheeze. 

“Adeline! George were you in on this?” George showed up at his feet, laughing himself.

“Sorry Freddie, she made me!” 

“I did not! He willingly helped.”

“I did not!” 

“Yes you did!”

“Did not!”

Fred started to stand up to interrupt our childish argument. “Not too bad. For an amateur and someone held against their will.” I opened my mouth to counteract his dig but a knock on the door made us all turn around to see it open and reveal a smiling Harry and Ron. 

“Well then Fred, why’re you screamin’ like Scabbers just climbed into your pants?” Ron spoke up behind Harry who laughed at the comment. 

“I did not!” Fred was quick to get defensive. 

“Actually, how about we replay it and see what level of fear that was.” I hopped off the bed and walked to the opposite side of the room to turn off the video. 

“Replay it? And how exactly do you reckon we do that?” Fred was confused and when I turned around with my phone in my hands they all gave me a confused look. 

“What’s that?” Fred asked, pulling the blankets off the floor and setting them on his bed. 

“It’s a phone. It can record things and take photos.” I clicked at the bottom of the screen to get the video to pop up, ready to play.

“Blimey, like what we learned in Muggle Studies?” Ron walked into the room more, still standing a little behind Harry. 

“Yeah. Come here and watch.” All of the boys trudged over to me to gather around the small screen I held in my hands. 

“Wow, that’s you!” George pointed down at the frozen screen where the play button was. Behind it was my frozen face where I had started the video.

I looked up to see all four boys looking at the screen and then I hit play. The video started and you could see me run away from the camera, kick off my shoes and flop onto Fred’s bed. 

“Blimey this is crazy.” Ron was amazed.

“More like brilliant.” Harry was standing closest to my left shoulder. 

Once George came onto the screen to tuck the sheets over me he shouted and pointed again saying, “Hey that’s me!” 

Once the lights got turned out I fast forwarded the video a few minutes forward until Fred came back into the room. I made sure the volume was all the way up so everyone could hear his humming.

“Going to bed early Georgie?” Played over the speaker. We all watched and listened for another minute as Fred conversed with George and then got situated into his bed through the screen. After a few seconds of silence we all heard, “So Fred I was-” and then Fred’s loud scream. We watched and all the boys, except for Fred, burst out laughing as the twin hit the ground. I turned it off once George and I had started arguing. 

“That’s incredible!” All the boys were still amazed at how my phone had recorded all of that, but Ron was the one to verbalize it the most.

“Yeah I guess it is. Never really thought of it like that.” I shrugged my shoulders while turning off my phone and sliding it into my back pants pocket.

“I reckon we can call that fair now?” Fred was looking right at me with his arms folded on his chest.

“Alright deal. But if you prank me again, I can leak this video to the whole school.” I probably wouldn’t, because no one else had phones and I’d get in trouble for having one, but I could still scare him with it. 

“Okay I won’t!” The brother threw his hands up in the air in defeat. 

“Well, I’m going back to my room now. Sweet dreams boys.” I walked out of the boys dormitories while they all said a goodnight back and headed for my own room. I would definitely have to show Juliet the video, and probably Hermione and Ginny. 

If I took a lot of pictures and videos throughout the year, I could show my parents when I went back home for the summer and I’m sure they would enjoy seeing their old school and how well I got along with my new friends. They would also be good memories to always look back on. Happy memories before things got bad.


	12. 11; Triwizard Competitors

I was walking to the great hall with my Gryffindor friends and Easton. We had already had dinner, and were sent off while tables got moved for the choosing ceremony. We had all gone to the quad for an hour to hang out and waste time before we would head back. 

“Hermione did you do the transfiguration homework?” Ron piped up from the back of the group. I was walking towards the front with Easton and the twins. 

“Yes Ronald.” Hermione sighed like she knew what question was coming next.

“Could I maybe-” She cut him off in frustration.

“You can’t copy but I can check it when you’re done. Otherwise you’ll never learn.” Hermione said while walking up closer to me almost in an attempt to get away from Ron. She was all about learning and education, but there were other parts of her she didn’t show as much. Like friendship.

“I swear, he always needs help and can never do anything on his own.” Hermione let out another sigh of irritation and I let out a small laugh. 

Easton split off from us to go sit at the Ravenclaw table while the Gryffindors headed for a stand of bleachers against the far wall. 

I saw Cedric at one of the tables closest to us, along with Lottie and Pierre. Cedric had already been looking at me when I made eye contact with him. I smiled towards him and gave a small wave before I walked up the steps to sit between George and Harry. 

“Oi, there better be some good competitors this year.” Fred nudged George with excitement. 

“Don’t worry Freddie, we’ll get our excitement somehow.” George said. 

“Sit down please.” Dumbledore appeared towards the front of the room, leaving the teachers table to walk in between the students. “And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the champions selection!” 

Almost every student appeared to be on the edge of their seats, including me. Dumbledore made his way towards the blue flamed goblet while the sound of his robes dragged across the ground. If a pin dropped, everyone would have heard it. 

As soon as Dumbledore approached the goblet, the blue flame turned into red. Within a few seconds a piece of charred paper flew into the air and into the headmasters hands. 

“The Durmstrang champion is...Viktor Krum!” 

Cheers erupted for the Durmstrang corner of the room, along with small clapping from around the room. 

Another name shot out with a bit of blue sparkles following the floating paper into Dumbledore's hands. “The champion for Beauxbatons...Fleur Delacour!” 

I saw a blonde girl in her baby blue uniform stand up and walk off into a separate room, following Krum. Her school girls cheered for her as well. A few of the boys around me seemed to be in a trance by her every step. I mean sure, she was pretty but really?

Everyone's attention was brought back to the goblet when the final name shot out. Another burnt piece of paper. I held my breath. This would be the Hogwarts champion. I crossed my fingers as I sat on the edge of my seat. 

“The Hogwarts champion...Cedric Diggory!” 

If I even had a stomach before this, it felt like it had disappeared now. My eyes dropped down to where the brunette boy stood up from his table with his friends clapping him on the back and cheering him on. He glanced at me before he turned to leave and I forced the smallest smile on my face. God I was the worst person ever. He had just been announced a champion and I was acting like the fate of the world rested on his shoulders and if he took one wrong step he would disappear in a cloud of ash. He would be fine. 

Fred and George shouted his name a few times and threw their fists up in the air. I wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground. 

“Hey he’s gonna be fine. It’s Cedric anyways. Of course he’s gonna be great.” I turned my head to make eye contact with Harry. He had leaned in to reassure me that everything would be fine. I didn’t have any words so I just nodded my head. 

“Excellent! We now have our three champions! But in the end only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory. The tri-wizard cup!” Someone had torn a sheet off of a figure at the front table, revealing a beautiful silver and blue glowing trophy. Imagine that in one of the schools. In Hogwarts. 

Another round of applause surrounded the room until the goblet shot out red fire again. I thought those three were it? Dumbledore became aware of the sudden explosion of fire and turned around, heading back towards the goblet. Another crisped paper flew out of the fire and was snatched before it could float much further. 

Dumbledore stared at the paper for a few seconds and muttered a name I could not hear. “Harry Potter?” It was quiet and full of uncertainty, but all the heads seemed to turn towards Harry, and even a few rested on me. I looked at Harry who was completely frozen in shock. How did he put his name in? 

“Harry Potter!” Dumbledore yelled it that time but Harry was still unmoving. 

“Harry?” My voice was quiet but he heard it and glanced at me before Hermione stood up and grabbed his arm. 

“Go on Harry.” He was still unmoving and I grabbed his other arm to help him stand up, or push him up. It was kind of both. “Harry for goodness sake.” Hermione pushed him again as he got onto solid ground and slowly walked past Dumbledore and towards that room all the contestants were in. 

It was a slow and painful walk as students stared and yelled insults. 

“He’s a cheat!”

“He’s not even seventeen yet!” 

Harry disappeared behind a door after giving a hesitant look to McGonagall, like a cry for help. 

This wasn’t right. No way did he put his name in that cup. 

“Go back to your dorms!” Dumbledore yelled it out before disappearing with other professors into that separate room. 

Students started leaving the room, everyone now muttering things about Harry Potter the cheat. No one seemed to care about the victors anymore. Even my own mind had fixed from fear for Cedric to now fear for Harry. Fear for the both of them!

I walked down the few steps of the bleachers while holding onto George’s arm. He didn’t seem to care but he was definitely aware of it. He reached the bottom before I did and held his hand out for me to grab, which I took. My knees felt weak and my head had inhabited a headache. 

He put his arm around my shoulders, which was easy and comfortable since he was about eight inches taller than me. I appreciated the bit of serenity he was trying to provide me with.

We stopped in the hallway next to Juliet, Lottie, and Pierre. 

“You don’t think he did it on purpose do you?” Lottie asked.

“Did you see his face? There’s no way he was expecting that… I don’t think Harry is the type to-” Juliet was cut off by Dean walking up beside us with Seamus and Neville. 

“Harry Potter has had the most eventful three years here already. He wouldn’t do it on purpose.” Dean said. 

“Are you kidding me? I think it’s brilliant, having a Gryffindor in the tournament, proper representation!” Seamus seemed proud of what had just happened. Was he mental?

“Finnigan, watch your mouth!” Angelina was standing beside Fred and walked off with him following her. George stayed with his arm around me, his thumb moving back and forth over my shoulder. 

“There’s no way…” Hermione walked up with Ron, on the other side of Juliet where I wasn’t standing with George. 

Ron seemed pissed. 

Juliet looked up at me and put her hand on my arm and lightly smiled at me. I gave her a half smile full of worry back. She put her hand back down at her side and looked up at Pierre who started to talk. 

“Maybe he did it on purpose…” He seemed annoyed and just as confused as the rest of us. 

“It’s probably not best to talk about it until they make some sort of announcement right? Harry hasn’t even explained anything to us yet, we can’t just assume things. Maybe they’ll say he can’t even play.” Juliet spoke out her own ideas and hopes. It seemed the most logical. 

“He’ll have to. It’s a magical contract to the game, there is no way he can withdraw.” I turned my head to see Easton walk up to the group. I looked back down at the floor as my own mind stirred with thoughts. 

“He probably just wanted to take all the glory for himself.” I looked up and instantly glared at some passing Hufflepuff. No one said anything to him. We all just glared. 

“Juliet’s right, he needs an opportunity to explain himself.” I spoke out for the first time since all this had happened. Juliet was right with her idea and I needed to second her on that. 

The people around us nodded and we took that as our cue to leave to our own common rooms to wait for the news. We would hear the news first hand from Harry. We would have the facts. Rumors would be spread around the school for weeks. Maybe even for the rest of this challenge. But we had to listen to him first. 

\---

Ron had stomped up to bed without any explanation. Hermione had also gone to bed after fifteen minutes of waiting and finally growing impatient. I sat on the common room sofa with the twins, Ginny in a red chair and Dean and Neville at a small table. No one really bothered to say anything. We all just sat there staring at the fire in front of us. 

The twins would occasionally say something about a prank idea, but they mainly kept quiet. Ginny had dozed off at one point and jumped when her head had slipped off of her hand that was keeping it up. 

I wasn’t anywhere near tired even though it was almost nine o’clock. 

After a few more minutes of waiting the portrait door creaked open. I jumped up from my spot between the twins and positioned my body to face the back of the couch. I had forgotten that I had already changed into my pajama shorts and t-shirt and quickly moved to straighten my posture after I realized how much my butt was sticking out. Let's hope the twins hadn’t looked at me. 

“Harry! What happened?” I asked the question everyone else was failing to ask. 

“Oh uhm hey guys.” He looked up from the floor, not even noticing that we had been there until my voice broke the silence. “Well, they’re making me compete. But I didn’t put my name in there I swear!” 

“I believe you Harry.” I said in a reassuring voice. He seemed to let out a huge breath of air, showing how relieved he was that someone finally listened to him.

“They all accused me of doing it at first until Moody stood up and said there was no way a fourth year could pull off a spell like that. I don’t know what happened. I don’t want to compete!” 

“There’s no way they’ll take you out?” Dean spoke up from his spot at the table. 

“No. They said there’s some binding magical contract now.” Harry looked at the floor again in gloom and despair. 

“That’s rubbish! Obviously you didn’t do it and someone’s trying to put you in danger.” My voice was rising a little. I was beyond irritated. 

“Yeah, I don’t know. Wouldn’t be the first time.” Harry shrugged his shoulders and walked further into the room. “You guys didn’t have to wait up for me.” 

“We wanted to know what happened.” I turned back around to follow him with my eyes.

“But now that you’re back.” Fred stood up.

“And you’ve explained everything.” George stood up.

“We’re off to bed.” They both said in unison as they walked past Harry to go up the steps. They each gave him a quick pat on the shoulder before ascending the stairs. 

“See you in the morning Harry.” Dean and Neville also walked up to the steps and gave him small sympathy smiles as they passed him. 

Ginny stood up and turned to Harry. “I’m sorry this happened Harry.” She gave him an awkward smile too before she walked up the stairs to our dorm which I would be at in a few minutes. He nodded to her and then looked back at me. 

“It might take a bit more explaining to Ron and Hermione for them to accept it, but for now, we believe you.” I hoped he knew that he wasn’t alone in this. Even if Hermione and Ron neglected him, I would still be there to cheer him on and help support him in any way I could.

“Thanks Adeline.” I stood up to make my way to my own dorm. Now that I was fully caught up on what was going on, I started to feel a bit sleepy. 

“Now at least try to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning Harry.” I walked past him and up the stairs as he followed a small distance behind. 

“Goodnight!” Harry spoke out before shutting the door to the boys dormitories as I opened the door to the girls. 

“Goodnight Harry.” 

I walked into the quiet and dark dorm room, shutting the door silently. Hermione was already asleep, rolled over to face the wall, and Ginny was pulling the sheets up over her head and finishing getting comfortable. 

I crawled into my own bed and pulled my blankets up to my chin and stared at the ceiling. 

“Do you think he’s going to be okay? I mean these challenges have to be hard and he’s not even the eligible age for them.” Ginny spoke from her side of the room. 

“Yeah I’m sure he’ll be okay. He has us to help him.” As I said that, my mind rolled back around to Cedric. Would he be fine? He had more training and experience with magic than Harry did so he already had to be a little better in that aspect of things. But would he actually be okay? 

What were these challenges even about anyways?


	13. 12; Learning to Move On

We were  
Just friends  
That spoke like lovers  
And that seemed to be enough for  
Two teenagers who were scared to love one  
Another.

k.a.t

I woke up this morning with a lot of anxiety. I didn’t know if it was from last night's events or just from random feelings. It didn’t help that nobody waited in the common room for me. I didn’t think I was running late. This overly crowded hallway was also making things worse. 

I couldn’t help that crushing feeling in my chest like the air was being sucked out of my lungs. 

“Adeline!” I turned around to see the red hair running at me. I felt my lungs being filled back up as relief washed over me. I smiled, glad to see her. 

“Whew, okay. Good morning!” Juliet seemed very cheery this morning. 

“Good morning. Someone’s cheerful,” I said as we walked into the great hall for breakfast. 

“I feel like it’s going to be a good day.” She had a bit of a hop to her step and I could hear her quietly humming.

We both stopped in our tracks when we realized Harry was sitting at a table, all alone. Hermione and Ron weren’t there with him, so clearly that friendship hadn’t been patched up yet. 

I looked at Juliet as she looked over at me. “Harry?” I asked.

“Harry.” She nodded at me in agreement and we started walking towards Harry until I felt hands on my shoulders. 

“Ahhh good morning ladies!” Both of the twins were behind us and one of them was turning me towards the direction of Ron and Hermione at a different table. Why weren’t we going to Harry?

“How was your sleep?” I looked up to tell that this was George asking the question. He put his arm around Juliet and helped assist her to the other table to sit at. This was annoying. 

“Well, it was fine but-”

They were fine with Harry last night so what was so different about this morning?

“If you want to sit with pretty boy Diggory-” Fred cut me off from behind me. 

“-you’re going to want to stay clear of Potter for a bit.” George finished the sentence. 

“That’s ridiculous!” I rolled my eyes in frustration. What did Cedric have to do with making sure Harry had a friend? “Cedric doesn’t care who I’m sitting with.” Why couldn’t Cedric sit with us too then? 

“Sure about that?” Fred looked up towards the entrance to the hall which caused us all to turn around and look. 

Cedric stood there staring at me with Pierre and Lottie at his sides. Pierre was talking to someone else and Lottie was looking right back at us. 

I focused on Cedric. His brown messy hair, yellow robes, yellow tie, black pants. He looked innocent and fragile. I sucked in a huge breath of air, trying to read his emotions. I couldn’t even tell what he was thinking. 

His gaze flicked to a group of Hufflepuffs that were calling his name and motioning for him to go over to them. His feet moved towards them before his head turned to look at me with hesitation in his eyes. Almost like he was asking if it was okay to sit with his friends. 

I shot him a small reassuring smile and barely nodded my head before turning to hurry up and sit down. I wanted to talk to him about last night. I felt like I needed to explain myself or something. Or understand more of what these challenges were about. 

I sat down across from Hermione and Ron and instantly started tapping my foot on the floor. The anxiety was settling in my stomach again and all I felt like doing was crying. 

Juliet sat next to me and the twins sat on the other sides of us. I didn’t even bother to check which twin it was. I just knew one of them was there. Lottie sat down across from us, next to Hermione who seemed uncomfortable and Ron who was silent and still bitter. 

Juliet tried to spark up new conversations, but I didn’t care to contribute. I forced myself to eat a slice of white toast and a piece of bacon. The twins were talking about their own things, but I had zoned almost everything out until Lottie started talking about quidditch. There wasn’t much else to talk about, but I was still polite despite my want to leave the table and go climb in bed and sob. 

I really only had anxiety when it came to social events where I was the center of attention, but some mornings I would wake up and the pit in my stomach would exist for no reason and I hated it. I felt weak and out of control of my own emotions. 

I never really told anyone about the few panic attacks I had had when it felt like someone had punched me in the gut and then was choking me to death. Juliet never even knew about them. 

I had already gone through my four classes for the day and had a free period. Juliet was in astronomy so I couldn’t hang out with her. I didn’t know where anyone else was so I decided to just walk out to the courtyard for a break. 

There were a few students out sitting in the grass or on benches. It was a really nice day out with blue sky and clouds so it made sense to go enjoy the weather. 

I found a nice patch of grass that was away from other students and patted the ground to be sure it was dry before laying down. I laid on my back with my books by my side. I looked up at the clouds that were moving quickly through the sky, different shapes forming every minute. 

The things that passed through my mind were deep memories. 

I was always afraid of what would happen back at Ilvermorny if someone would have taken Juliet and harmed her when I couldn’t be there to save her. There had been the time that a few girls had locked her in the bathroom and called her all these names and I had found her crying herself to sleep that night. I never forgave those girls or the boys who had pushed her around after one of their quidditch games and threw mud on her. 

I was an extremely protective person, and when it came to people I cared about, I would do anything for them. The sorting hat was right about that part. 

Maybe that was why I was so eager to move to Hogwarts and leave America. Of course there had been a few occasions that I was pushed up against the wall by the upperclassmen jocks after I had made witty comments to them that embarrassed them in front of half the school. 

They had said I would get what was coming to me and had tormented me and called me names too but I never really cared. I only cared about Juliet and how she felt and how she was being treated. Hogwarts was so much better than Ilvermorny. Most of the people here were so much better too. Or at least the people I had talked to. 

I felt a need to protect those who came into my life that were too innocent to experience pain. I felt the need to protect Cedric and keep him safe and innocent and out of danger, but now he was walking right into it and there was nothing I could do about it. 

A few tears rolled down my cheek but I didn’t bother to wipe them away until another presence came and laid down next to me. I sat up quickly while wiping off my face to realize Cedric had sat down on the grass. 

“Is it okay if I lay here with you?” His voice was soft and gentle. 

I nodded and laid back down looking up at the clouds again. A minute or two had passed of silence until he spoke up again. 

“Why are you crying?” 

I hadn’t noticed that more tears had fallen down my cheek and when I went to rub them off again he grabbed my hand to stop me. 

“You don’t need to cover it up. It’s okay to cry.” I could tell that he was looking at me, but I refused to look at him. If I did I was afraid I was going to lose control. I had a lot of emotions bottled up inside of me that I needed to let out but was it okay to talk to him about them? 

“I know I just…” What was I even supposed to say?

“You can talk to me if you want to. I’ll be here to listen. I promise.” 

Flashback

“William come play with me!” I yelled cheerfully to my older brother who was doing homework for his seventh year finals. He was graduating this year and his plan was to be an auror. My parents were beyond proud of him for his hard work. 

“I will Addie just let me finish this last problem. Hey actually do you want to help me? I can quiz you on your magical knowledge of charms!” Excitement rose in his voice as I ran into his bedroom and jumped on his bed. 

“Ask me! Ask me!” My ten year old self urged while hopping up and down.

“Which spell has the opposite effect of Lumos?” He asked me while looking away from his desk piled with papers and books. 

“That’s easy! Nox!” 

“Well how did you know that?” He spoke in his playful tone.

“You always used it to hide us in the dark from mom and dad in our forts, remember silly?” I slid off the bed to walk over and look at his assignments. 

“Ahh I remember now!” He looked back to his parchment and wrote a few things down with his quill. 

“Hey William?” My quiet and innocent voice spoke up.

“Yes Adeline?” He kept writing but stopped when I hesitated to speak.

“If I get my letter, and I become a wizard just like you, can you help me on my exams to make sure I pass?” 

“Of course you’ll get your letter and you’ll become the smartest witch I know! But if you do need help, I’ll always be here to help you. I promise.” 

I threw my free hand over my mouth to block my muffled sobs. The tears fell thicker now and more frequent as they rushed out of my eyes. 

“I’m sorry, what did I say? Are you okay? Adeline what’s wrong?” Cedric sat up quickly to lean over me and was rambling on extremely fast. 

I closed my eyes to try and stop the tears that still escaped and dropped into the grass. 

I managed to let out a muffled, “I’m so sorry.” Why did I have to remember him now? 

I had spent endless months trying to block out those memories just so I could sleep again and now they all came rushing back to me. 

“Hey, hey it’s okay. It’s okay. Just try to breathe okay? I’m right here.” Cedric had sat up completely and was facing me, urging me to sit up so I would stop choking with my tight throat. It felt like someone had lodged a rock down my mouth. 

That’s why today was so hard and it had felt like there was a brick on my chest. Tomorrow would mark eight years. 

“Hey can you stand up for me?” Cedric reached his hands out for me to grab and helped pull me to my feet. Once I was standing he put his arm around me and walked me down a path for more privacy and to escape the stares. 

We stopped at a cement bench, away from students and instead of sitting down, he pulled me into his chest so I could finish crying. 

He didn’t ask for an explanation. He didn't hesitate to rub his hand across my back to soothe me in any possible way. He didn’t hesitate to hold me close and tight. 

We stood there for a few minutes in silence, but it was the kind of silence that said everything.

Once I had quieted down, I slowly started to pull back to rub my eyes and brush off my wet cheeks. He loosened his grasp on me and placed his hands onto each side of my face. Instead of me removing any sign of my mental breakdown, he was the one to place his thumbs gently on my cheek and wipe away the tears. 

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to, but after he finished clearing my tears, he pulled me back into a hug and placed his chin on top of my head. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.” I spoke into his chest which made my sentence a bit faint, but it was still loud enough for him to hear. 

“There’s no reason to apologize. It’s okay. It happens.” 

We stayed that way for a few more seconds which felt like a small infinity, until I finally started to pull back. If I hadn’t moved first, I don’t think he would have moved until I was ready for it. 

I looked down at his sweater which was now wet in spots. “I’m sorry… I left tear puddles and snot on your sweater…” He glanced down at it and shrugged. 

“Eh I have to do laundry anyways.” He took a little step back so he wouldn’t hit me and then he pulled off his black and yellow trimmed sweater, leaving him in his white button up with his tie hanging freely. 

I scoffed at how easy going he was with all this. He really was the kindest boy I had ever met. That was even an understatement. Who even still treats someone like this? Cedric Diggory was not just a kind boy, he was like a prince that every girl dreams of having to whisk her off her feet and treat her like the rarest diamond in the world.

“Why aren’t you in class Miss Finley?” He threw his sweater over his arm and raised his eyebrows, moving on from the past situation. 

“I had a free period. And doesn’t that question apply to you as well?” I raised my eyebrows back.

“Well being a prefect has its perks...and I also have a free period.” Cedric said in a matter of fact tone. 

“Well would you look at that.” I sat down on the bench and looked out to another view of the black lake. Similar to the library spot but lower to the ground. 

After a few seconds of watching me, Cedric sat down next to me, rather closely. 

He stayed quiet, almost like he was afraid that if he said something wrong, I was going to shatter into a million pieces. 

“I had a brother.” I mumbled it, but he heard it and looked at me. I kept my eyes on the lake. 

“His name was William. He was definitely my best friend.” I smiled at the memory of him. “We used to always play outside together and I would drag him along to do whatever a child wants to do. We never fought, even when I would take his things.” 

If I was really going to tell Cedric these things, I must either be insane, or completely trusting of him. 

“What I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told anyone. No one knows about this except for my family and Juliet's family.” I paused to look at him. 

“Whatever you say, stays with me.” His eyes pierced into mine as he spoke. There was no way I couldn’t trust him. There was no reason not to. 

“My father was a Slytherin when he came to school here and I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that there’s never been a Slytherin who hasn’t become one of his followers.” 

He nodded his head and I continued.

“My father was never one of those people, but his family was. They were very loyal to him, but my father refused and when he married my mom, they moved to America to do what they could to escape him and start a new life. The Blooms followed since they were so close. Then they settled down, had my brother and then had me. 

“Of course, me being ten, they never told me about the dark side of the family because I wasn’t old enough to know, but my brother knew all about it. He was in his final year at Ilvermorny, finishing classes and already training to become an Auror. He was the bravest person I knew. I looked up to him so much.

“Then one day everything changed. Death Eaters broke into our house and one of them was coming right for me. My brother fought to protect me as my parents fought to protect the both of us, and I was helpless. No wand to shoot spells out of, not much education in magic, just a small little girl who had to hide behind her brother to keep her safe until he was no longer standing in front of me, and instead he was falling to the ground as green light flashed through the room.” 

Flashback

“Adeline get behind me!” My brother was pushing me behind him to hide me the best he could from the spells being shot through the room. 

“Expelliarmus!”

“Petrificus Totalus!”

“Crucio!”

Different spells flew through the room, breaking things and shattering windows. 

“William go! Get your sister out of here!” My parents were yelling above all the noise to my brother.

“And leave you?” He shouted back while shooting spells to defend us.

“You have to go now!” 

William turned around and grabbed me by the shoulders. “We need to get to the front door okay. This is all gonna be over soon just stay behind me okay? Everything’s gonna be okay. I promise. I love you.” 

I nodded my head in fear and understanding. 

He grabbed my hand and started running down the hall towards the front door to escape. Except we never made it out of the house. As soon as he had opened the door, green light flashed straight towards his chest and he fell back collapsing onto the floor. I screamed so loud that my parents came sprinting down the hallway and froze at the sight of my dead brother lifeless on the floor with me sobbing over his chest. The death eaters had vanished at their victory of killing one of us and left us in our misery. 

I rested my head on Cedric’s shoulder as another silent tear fell. 

“After that, we moved again in an attempt to hide, but it didn’t really matter at that point.” 

“Adeline, I’m so sorry. I-” He started to explain something that didn’t need explaining.

“Cedric.” I cut him off to get him to stop. I didn’t need another person to tell me sorry over something that was never their fault and would never be their fault. It was just a tragic backstory. 

“Tomorrow marks eight years… I miss him.” 

Instead of using words, Cedric turned his body towards me, grabbed my face and kissed my forehead. He pulled away and looked at my bloodshot eyes and then pulled me into another hug. That one embrace felt like he needed it almost as much as I did. 

\---

I didn’t want to do anything today. Just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling. There was no alarm to wake us up since it was a Saturday, but when I did wake up the room was empty. It was already nine o’clock and the sun shone through the bedroom windows. 

A knock on the door made me look up to see Juliet entering with Fred and George behind her. 

“Hey,” Juliet slowly entered the dorm and turned to say something to the twins which made them leave. 

“The boys let you in?” I questioned while she walked in and sat at the foot of my bed. 

“I only had to ask a few times.” She smiled lightly as I sat up to rest my back against the bed frame.

“Do you want to get ready and go to breakfast with me?” She asked with a soft voice.

“I’m not hungry. Thanks though.” I avoided eye contact and fiddled with my fingers. 

“Okay that’s fine. Did you want to do anything today? Our first Saturday being here and all.” She was just trying to make me feel better, but it wasn’t working. I had spent years pushing down the thoughts and memories of William and now they were all flooding back to me, pushing against me like the waves of the ocean crashing into a pile of rocks. 

“Not really. I’ll get ready for dinner later though.” I needed to eat at least once today. 

“Okay well, I’ll see you later then. Are you sure you don’t want any company?” She sympathized for me. After all, she just wanted to make sure I was okay. 

“No, I’m good. Maybe later.” I forced a smile onto my face as she nodded, got off my bed and left the room. 

I laid there for another half hour. I didn’t move from my spot once. I just stared out the window, disoriented and stuck. 

Another knock on the door broke me out of my trance. Who was it now? 

I decided to actually stand up this time to open the door. I was still in my shorts and tshirt and when I opened the door to see who was standing there, I regretted not putting on a sweatshirt because I wasn’t wearing a bra. 

“Hi,” He smiled at me and I looked him up and down to see Cedric standing there in jeans, a black shirt and a bouquet of flowers in his hand. 

“Uh, what are you doing? How’d you get in?” I peered around him to see no one else standing with him. Did he listen to me that night when I said the password? 

“How about you get dressed, and we take a walk.” He ignored my second question. 

“I don’t really… Okay fine.” I opened the door more to let him walk in which he didn’t do until I said, “You can come in.” He slowly shuffled into the dorm, looking around the room. 

I pulled my trunk out from under my bed and pulled out a pair of skinny jeans, a bra and underwear, and a black long sleeve. We would be matching but I didn’t even pay attention to that factor until I had walked back into the room after changing in the bathroom. 

“Where are we even going?” I threw my pjs on the end of my bed and pulled the sheets up to make my part of the room look somewhat presentable. 

“You’ll know when we get there.” He left the window he was standing in front of and made his way towards me. “I know today is a rough one, so I figured we could do something special.” 

My eyes started tearing up as I pulled my shoes on and when I stood back up straight, he was standing in front of me to give me another heartwarming hug. 

I wrapped my arms around his back and he wrapped his around my waist. He treated me in a way no one had ever treated me, and I was deeply grateful. 

I pulled away from the hug and started towards the door as he followed me. He shut the door behind him and walked closely with me down the stairs and through the common room. A few people gave him weird looks for being a Hufflepuff in the Gryffindor common room but no one said anything. 

Once we made it out of the portrait door, he walked next to me down the stairs of the castle. 

“Have you eaten anything today?” He asked. 

“No I’m not hungry.” I really wasn’t hungry. Maybe I was just pushing it away but if someone would have put food in front of me, I wouldn’t have eaten it anyways. 

“Okay well we can always get snacks later. I know where the kitchen is.” I looked up at him and smiled at him for the first time that day. 

“Thank you Cedric. For listening, and for being here.” There could have been so many guys that would have left the moment a tear fell down my face or the second they heard that my family was full of murdering death eaters. But he stayed. And I still didn’t fully understand why. 

“I will always listen to you.” He said while smiling at me. That one smile, it almost made all of my sadness disappear and I didn’t understand how it had that sort of power over me. 

We walked through the corridors and across the same bridge that Harry and I had taken to get to the owlry but instead of going to the owlry, Cedric led me down a dirt path towards the lake. 

“Just a little further. You doing okay?” He broke the silence, glancing over to me. 

“Yeah I’m alright.” I kept my eyes on the path. It was a pretty trail through the trees to wherever we were going. The leaves were starting to turn colors to prepare for autumn. 

After a few more minutes of walking, the trail opened up to a lake. The black lake. There was a dock out in front of us that Cedric started to walk to. 

I hesitated, completely confused in what we were doing. He turned around and grabbed my hand, reassuring me that it was okay to walk onto the dock. 

Once we got to the end, he stopped and looked out among the scenery in front of us. 

“I got some poppies which uh, stand for remembrance, chrysanthemums which represent sympathy and some red roses for, well love. I figured we could just put them in the water as a memorial.” He seemed shy and scared that I wouldn’t like the idea. The fact that he had thought about this was enough for me to want to do anything for him. 

“Cedric, I love that. He would love it too.” He softened at my words and handed me the bouquet of different red flowers. I thought it was very wholesome that he knew what they all meant. 

I looked down at the bouquet before kneeling down on the dock. I took the first flower out, a red poppy, and reached over the end of the dock to set it peacefully in the lake. My fingers brushed against the cold water as I released the flower out into the lake. I rested back on my heels as the flower floated out into the open. 

This was me letting go. 

Not saying goodbye, but moving on.

Accepting the past.

And remembering William with all the love I had in my heart.

This would have possibly never happened without Cedric right there, kneeling by my side, handing me another flower to send into the water, and to release the feeling of pain and replace it with a memory of love. 

Every flower that I let go, was another memory.

The time I attended his quidditch game and watched him catch the golden snitch. I was so proud, even as a nine year old little girl.

The time he had set up a tent in our backyard so I could have an experience of camping out in the wilderness, only because I had mentioned it once or twice when I was seven. 

Or even the time I had broken my mothers favorite cup on accident and he had fixed it with magic and we both promised to never mention it again. 

All the silly memories came back to me. The ones that brought me joy. 

And the bad memories were left out of my reach, and that’s where they should stay. 

There was one more rose left, but I wasn’t quite ready to let it go just yet. 

Cedric had already sat down, and I moved to sit with my legs tucked in front of me. I rested my head on his shoulder, and he moved to put his arm around my waist. It was comforting. Just sitting there with someone, a wonderful view in front of us, learning to let go while honoring someone so close. 

“He would have loved it here.” My voice was just above a whisper while I twirled the final rose inbetween my fingers. 

“It is beautiful, isn’t it.” 

“The people, the school, the classes...everything about it. He would have just felt at home.” Even though it had been eight years, I knew William better than anyone had, and I knew this would have been his home away from home. It was already starting to feel like mine. 

After a few minutes passed of pleasant silence, I took the final rose and set it into the water while a few tears fell. I stood up and looked out to the row of flowers that floated on the surface of the water, starting at the dock and leading about thirty feet into the water. 

This was the memorial he never got. 

The memorial he deserved. 

I love you William. 

You provided me with everything as a child.

And I will always love you. 

Cedric stood up and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we stood there for some time, just looking at the lake, the flowers, the trees, the clouds. All of it. 

I put the sadness behind me. I didn’t want to be sad anymore. I wanted to enjoy the rest of the day. It’s what William would have wanted. 

I wrapped my arms fully around Cedric’s middle as he did the same to me. 

“Thank you. For all of this. I finally got my goodbye.” I felt something wet hit my cheek, and when I looked up, I saw Cedric’s eyes, filled with tears. 

“No, please don’t cry. It’s okay. He can rest now, and his memory can finally be a beautiful thing, instead of a tragedy.” I pulled my hand up to his face and rubbed away the tear tracks on his cheek. 

“I’m so sorry you never got it earlier.” He looked down at the ground in guilt.

“Hey, hey look at me.” His head pulled back up and his eyes met mine. “I spent all those years ignoring it and never putting it to rest. You made this possible okay. Without you, I would still be suffering. I feel like I can finally breathe again, and that’s thanks to you.” I stretched onto my tippy toes and kissed his soft cheek. 

When I pulled away after a second, he looked almost taken by surprise but quickly hid it. 

“No more crying okay?” I said it more as a request than a question. 

“No more crying.” He shook his head in understanding. 

I looked out at the flowers one more time, smiled, interlaced our fingers, and started walking back into the woods towards the castle. 

“Hey there’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.” 

We had walked up the path and were almost to the castle when he broke the silence. 

“Yeah?” I asked while looking up at him before looking back at the path to be sure I didn’t trip and bring both of us down to the ground. 

He sensed this and stopped, pulling me back to face him. 

“The challenge.” His grey eyes pierced through mine. 

“You mean the triwizard championship?” I almost stuttered it out and tried my best to answer with solid words. 

“Yeah that one.” He smiled lightly which caused me to glance down at his lips. I quickly looked back up to his eyes, scared to make that choice again. I hadn’t noticed how closely we were standing until then. 

“I put my name in because I wanted my father to be proud of me. He’s always had these high standards. He’s not hard on me, he just wants me to always do my best.” I understood perfectly what he meant. My parents were always pushing me to do good in my studies and do everything to my best ability. 

I nodded and he continued, “I guess in a way to say things, I did it to impress him, I don’t know that sounds weird.” He closed his eyes and shook his head in embarrassment for just saying that.

“No I get it. And it’s fine Cedric. You’re doing something you want to do and I was selfish to try and control that. I should have been happy for you. I am happy for you. I think you’ll do greatly.” He opened his eyes back up to smile down at me. 

“Thank you Adeline… I also wanted to-” 

“Hey there you guys are!” I broke eye contact with Cedric and turned to see Pierre running at us from the covered bridge. Cedric audibly sighed. 

“What is it Pierre?” Cedric asked while the boy stopped a few feet in front of us. 

“Uhm, sorry for interrupting.” He looked down at our hands which caused me to pull mine out of Cedric’s grip. I didn’t mean to upset him in any way, it was just awkward for me. “Er- dinner’s starting and it’s supposed to storm soon and the professors are telling students to stay inside.” 

I looked up at the sky and saw the black clouds forming above us. I silently hoped it would thunder. I always liked storms and listening to the rain. 

A gust of wind carried through the trees and towards us. It made my hair fly up off my shoulders and hit Cedric in the face. 

“Sorry,” I said while attempting to pull my hair back. 

“Let's just head inside.” He turned towards Pierre and we followed him back across the bridge as it started to pour. 

“Perfect timing if you ask me.” Pierre said in front of us. I rolled my eyes and looked out to the final view of the black lake before we walked through the oak doors of the school. 

I remembered what Cedric had started to say before Pierre had cut us off and looked over at him. “Hey what were you going to say? Before Pierre cut you off.” 

He stared at the ground for a second and then looked at me and furrowed his eyebrows before saying, “I’ll just talk to you about it later. It doesn’t matter.” 

Whatever he was going to say, definitely seemed like it mattered, but I let it go. I just nodded my head instead of saying anything. I would find out within a few months what it was he had wanted to tell me as the school days went on a lot faster, and the friendships grew a lot stronger.


	14. 13; Halloween Night

Over a month had passed since Juliet and I had started attending Hogwarts, and it was going great. I had already made more friends then I had ever had at Ilvermorny, and I was doing great in my classes too with the help of Hermione and Easton occasionally.

Everyone had been talking about Halloween and how the great hall would be decorated with these huge pumpkins that the gamekeeper, Hagrid, grew.

I had thought about other things we could do to add a bit more excitement to the night. Back at Ilvermorny, a few students would throw a party in the dorms but it almost always got shut down. And I never really cared for parties.

“Juliet that’s it!” I shook her arm at the table we shared in the library. We were studying for our defense against the dark arts class before the library closed for the night. Juliet occasionally dozing off and me frequently losing track of my reading.

“What’s it?” She lifted her head off of her hands to look at me with a groggy expression.

“After the Halloween feast tomorrow, we get the twins to pass out some invitations for a small party sorta thing but we just play a few games and then late at night we play hide and seek in the school!” My voice was laced with excitement and Juliet sat up straight thinking through the idea.

“Wait that’s amazing!” She was nodding her head as she still seemed to think everything through. “But what if we get in trouble for being out late at night?”

“Uhm… we hope no one gives us detention?” I smiled stupidly. There was a small chance we wouldn’t get caught, but it was worth that chance.

“Yeah sure, great plan.” Jules changed her excited voice to sarcastic.

“The library is closing for the night. Go back to your dorms.” I turned around to see the librarian standing behind us. I nodded and stood up with Juliet while putting my books into my arms to carry back to my room.

“I say we take that risk. It would be fun!” I opened the door for her as the lights shut off inside the big room.

“Okay yeah I’m in.” She finally agreed after a few minutes of debating it.

“Awesome, I’ll talk to the twins tonight.”

We broke off down the hall to go our separate ways to our common rooms. The common room was pretty empty and the redheads were nowhere in view. I walked up to my dorm and put my books on my desk, then changed into my pajamas: a long sleeve shirt with shorts.

Ginny was doing homework at her desk, but Hermione wasn’t in the dorm. I left the room and walked towards the boys dormitories. I knocked once on Fred and George’s door before turning the handle and pushing it open and walking in.

“What if I was in the middle of changing?” Fred asked as I barged in and flopped onto George’s bed. They were both on their own beds with papers spread out and books in different places, clearly doing school work.

“I’d close my eyes then.” I arched my back to pull a paper out that I had laid on and slightly crumpled. George glared at me in frustration for crushing his homework. “My bad.” I muttered, setting the paper in his lap and staring at the ceiling for a moment before sitting up to tell them the idea.

“I’ll do it but I’m not writing the invitations.” George spoke up next to me.

I looked over at Fred and he nodded his head. “Of course I’m in. But I agree with George.”

“I’ll make them. Actually give me a second. I’ll be right back.” I shot up from the bed and ran back to my dorm to grab a stack of paper and my wand. I pulled out my quill and raised my wand. The quill dipped into a jar of ink before floating down to the paper to begin writing. I imagined the words I wanted written down, and then they were on the page.

I love magic.

After twenty pieces of parchment were written on, the quill set itself back down on the desk. I grabbed the papers and went back to the boys dorm.

“Here. Obviously do our main friend group first and then add a few others in.” I set them down on George’s desk where his books weren’t sitting.

“How did you write those so fast?” Fred asked.

“Magic?” Asked George.

“Magic.” I said, before wishing them a good night and heading back to my room to sleep.

\---

“This class couldn’t be any longer.” I sat in potions with Easton while we brewed a pepperup potion. I was working fast in hopes that the clock would go faster too but it didn’t.

“This class is always long. Hey watch it!” Easton quickly grabbed my wrist to stop me from putting in the wrong ingredients. “At least try to pay attention to the instructions.” I dropped the stuff I had in my hand and sat down in the stool.

“Fine you do it then. Jeez.” Easton stepped in front of the cauldron to do the work correctly.

“I hope you haven’t given up Miss Finley. I don’t tolerate quitters.” I looked up to see Snape standing there looking down at me with a judgy look. I quickly stood up which caused the stool to fall to the ground with a clang.

I cringed as it hit the ground and quickly turned around to sit it back up before turning back to the professor. “No sir, just taking a break.”

He stared at me for a few seconds before turning off to go ridicule the next student. Easton let out a laugh he had been holding in which caused me to glare at him.

“Nice going,” He laughed while stirring the mixture.

“Oh shut up. Hey by the way, are you going to the Halloween party tonight?” I asked while leaning over the tall table.

“Yeah, I got an invitation from the twins earlier. Is Juliet gonna be there?” I looked over at him as he continued to stir the potion. Why did he care if Jules was gonna be there? I looked across the tables to see her and Draco actually working together on the assignment. Weird.

“Yeah she’ll be there. Why?” I looked back at him to see his expression.

“No reason. Just curious.” He never took his eyes off the assignment but I saw his cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

The rest of the day went by and I eventually was working my way through the students to find a seat at the great hall for the feast. Huge pumpkins really were floating across the room above our heads with the classic white burning candles. The ceiling was full of stars as it reflected the constellations above Hogwarts. It was exquisite.

I took a seat next to Cedric where I had grown accustomed to sitting. No one bothered to comment on it anymore since it was becoming more of a regular occurrence.

“Hi there.” I looked up and saw Cedric greeting me with a smile.

“Hey,” I said back, returning the cheery smile.

“Oh hey there.” I turned to see the twins sitting down next to me, adding in their commentary to make fun of me and Cedric.

“Shove off Fred. Did you two give out all the invitations?” Both of the boys nodded their heads in response and then turned to each other with mischievous grins.

“Why are you smiling like that? What did you do?” I quizzed them while they started to chuckle.

“We did nothing wrong.”

I looked between the two of them for a few seconds before turning back to the others at the table. There was no point in asking because they wouldn’t tell me what it was even if I threatened them. Okay maybe if I threatened them but I didn’t need anyone mad at me tonight.

“You’re going right?” I asked Cedric.

“To what?” He asked, genuinely confused.

“We’re having a little Halloween party in the Gryffindor common room after dinner. Just play some games and all.” I hoped he would go. There didn’t seem like there was a reason for him not to.

“Oh uhm, yeah. Yeah I’ll go.” He nodded his head a few times.

“Okay sweet. You can also change into more comfortable clothes after dinner.” I was planning to just wear sweats and a long sleeve. I heard the twins talking about just wearing pajamas so it didn’t matter what anyone wore but it was going to be late, so we might as well be comfy.

Dumbledore gave a small speech before food appeared on the tables. Harry and Ron talked about how they were glad they were here instead of reliving the ghost deathday party they went to for Sir Nicholas in their second year. They weren’t fond of the memory and Hermione refused to talk about it.

After the main course disappeared off the table, deserts took its place. Pudding, pie, cake, jelly, ice cream, and other options. I took a few scoops of ice cream, steering clear of the pudding. That stuff was nasty but Ron seemed to be a huge fan of it.

After a show from dancing skeletons which was apparently a repeat from second year that Ron, Harry and Hermione had missed, all the students got dismissed for the night.

Everyone was to meet outside the Gryffindor common room in twenty minutes if you weren’t already a Gryffindor. Then the twins would let them in and the party would begin.

I put on a white long sleeve that had a few buttons at the top with blue and red plaid pajama pants. If I were to fall asleep during this, I wanted to be comfortable and not stuck in my school uniform. Hermione and Ginny had also changed into their sleeping attire.

When we walked down the stairs, the Hufflepuff's were already standing by the sofa. I immediately took in Cedric’s appearance. He was in grey sweats and a black sweatshirt and Merlin that was attractive. The air seemed to be sucked out of my lungs when he turned his looking from the tapestries to me. I almost tripped down the stairs.

I grabbed the wall as I slightly stumbled. Ginny whispered behind me, “Stop drooling.” I turned around and looked at her with an expression saying ‘Shove off’ which made her laugh.

A few more people filed into the room, two of them being Easton and a girl I had heard was Luna Lovegood. She had very blonde hair and seemed like an authentic person. Some people thought she was weird, but she seemed knowledgeable and kind to me.

Pierre and Lottie both had snacks in their hands that they set on the table normally used for chess.

“Welcome, welcome.” The twins were directing a few more people through the portrait and into the common room. Everyone looked around our age, no first or second years. At least fourth years and up. We all just watched them walk in and look around the room, most in awe.

“Well what are the plans for the evening?” A higher pitched voice asked through the silence. We all took our eyes off of the newcomers and turned towards Luna who stood looking around us with a curious smile.

The eyes turned back towards me once the twins pointed at me as the boss. Just because I came up with the idea, didn’t mean I wanted to be in charge. “Uhm, well we can just hang out in here and play some games for a bit and then since it’s Halloween, go and pull some pranks for the teachers and play a huge game of hide and seek.” The twins cheered at the mention of pranks and at the end.

“How about a game of exploding snap?” The twins pipped up and pulled out a deck of blue and gold cards from Fred's pocket. Everyone seemed to agree so we all sat down in a circle in front of the fire. I had never played this game before but the rules got explained. We played the classic version which required you to hit the card with the top of your wand once you see two identical pictures and you’ll receive a point. The player with the most points wins, but the cards shuffle faster throughout the game.

Not everyone had brought their wands, so we had to pair up in twos. Lottie and Pierre were together, Juliet and Easton ended up together, Hermione and Ron, Harry and Ginny, a few others with people I barely knew and then me and Cedric. I hadn’t even realized we paired up into couples. Even Fred had Angelina and George had another Gryffindor girl his age.

We used Cedric’s wand since I had left mine upstairs. It was a black-tipped baton style with different engravings on it. I pointed out identical cards while he used his wand to actually score the points. It was hard playing this game with so many people and we quickly called quits on that idea.

“How about we play truth or dare?” I didn’t hear who said it because I was busy watching Hermione scold Ron for dropping a few crisps on the ground, and then crushing them into the carpet with his knee by accident.

There was a bit of hesitation throughout the room, but the majority agreed.

Random stuff was dared or truthed out of people but nothing super interesting happened until the dares started picking up, starting at me and Juliet.

“Adeline, I dare you to do your best Harry impression and Juliet to do your best Ron impression.” Pierre said.

I looked at Harry and Ron, and then at Jules and smirked.

“Oh God, we’re in trouble.” Ron said while throwing his head into his hands.

I stood up and grabbed Juliet and tugged her along to run up the stairs and towards the boys dorms.

“What are we doing?” She asked as I pushed the door open.

“To do the best impression, you must become the person. And to our advantage, I know which room is theirs.” I opened the first door and shut it behind Juliet. I pointed to Ron’s trunk for Jules to grab clothes out of while I opened Harry’s.

I pulled out his black school sweater and put the tie over it just like Juliet was doing. I didn’t have a collar to put the tie around, so it hung freely around my neck. The smell of faint collage wafted through my nose when I put his Gryffindor robes on. I found a hat in his trunk and threw my hair over my head and stuffed the hat over it to make me look like a boy. I took up the corner of his sweater and smelled it again, but I regretted it.

“Harry wears wayyy too much cheap cologne.” I coughed and cringed at the smell of it which made Juliet laugh. She seemed done so I added, “Come on then, we can’t keep the show away from them for too long.”

We made it through the staircase, laughing at each other before stopping at the edge to reveal ourselves.

“Okay are you ready? One...two...three!” I whispered to Juliet to make sure we both hopped out at the same time. At three we walked out and laughter immediately filled the room. I first looked at Cedric who was laughing hard, which made me feel accomplished for fulfilling this dare with happy faces. Then I looked at Harry and an idea came to my mind.

I ran over to Harry while saying, “Why’d you take my glasses? Give them back, I can’t see!” I put my arms up acting as if I really couldn’t see and when I made it to Harry I pulled his glasses off, slapping away his hands that were trying to reach for them back. “Ahh much better!” I said, even though it wasn’t. Now I couldn’t barely see a thing.

“Bloody hell!” Juliet exclaimed in her mocking tone towards Ron. She made sure to add the voice cracks which sent another wave of laughter through the room. “Harry, have you changed your hair? I must say, I liked it much better the way it was before!”

I could only see blurry blobs for figures, but I threw my hand up to my chest and said in a hurt tone back, “Shove off Ron. I thought I’d try a new look.” I almost laughed at my own response, but I held it together.

“Is that for us?” Juliet’s figure ran past me and towards the food table. After a few seconds she mumbled out through a mouth full of food, “I was beginning to think... I was going to starve to death... the way they feed us here!” She paused in between mouthfuls of food. I could hear Hermione’s distinct laugh, along with everyone else’s except for Ron’s

I stumbled over the step on the floor and almost landed flat on my face, but caught myself, heading for Juliet. “Ron, did you hear that I got 700 points for Gryffindor today? All because Headmaster Dumbledore liked my new hair!” It was my turn to now whip my hair to the side dramatically.

I heard a few wheezes, people gasping for air, and other normal laughs. The Gryffindor's almost seemed offended by my comment, but where was the lie? I mean I wasn’t complaining since I was a Gryffindor but the other houses found it hysterical.

“You know who has nice hair? Viktor Krum,” Juliet said it in a tone of adornment and affection which made me almost laugh, but I kept it together.

I heard the twins start to sing quietly, “Viktor I love you, Viktor I do!”

“More like brilliant hair Ron! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I’d even say spectacular!” I carried on, dragging Harry through the mud with how well I was acting like him, despite only knowing him a few months.

“Alright we get it! Now can you give me my glasses back, I can’t see!” Harry piped up. I accidentally ran into a table, trying to find my way back to him, and then I remembered I could see better if I just took the glasses off.

“I don’t act anything like that-” Ron started but got cut off.

“Yeah, you do.” Majority of the room spoke up, the loudest ones to disagree with Ron being the twins and Ginny.

I handed Harry his glasses back with a clearer view of the room. Juliet started to take off her Ron outfit but before she could make it too far up the stairs, I stopped her.

“I got this one,” I said while grabbing the clothes out of her hand and walking past her.

“Are you sure? I could-”

“I’m already halfway up, go back to the party.” I had to raise my voice for her to hear through the stone wall. The voices dimmed out as I made it past the overlooking railing and into the boys dorms.

I layed the clothes back down on their beds and hung up their robes on their bed posts. I headed to my dorm to grab my wand and fix my hair from it being shoved up in the hat. As I walked through the path, I heard the twins say, “Give us a spin Ronald!” Which made me chuckle before walking through my own dormitory room.

I fixed my hair in the mirror first, laying it back down flat on my shoulders before grabbing my wand off my desk. I wanted to do my own spells and charms for pranks without having to share a wand with someone or not even participate.

I closed the door behind me and headed back down to the common room. “Sorry I took so long, I had to…” I noticed how quiet it was and looked up to see everyone staring at me. “...grab my wand. What’s up?” I asked hesitantly. Why was everyone staring at me?

In an instant, everyone turned to talk to the people besides them as if nothing had happened. I made eye contact with Juliet who was smiling like she knew something I didn’t and then to Cedric who was staring at me with a tint of pink in his cheeks.

I walked back over to my spot, very confused. Instead of sitting down, I spoke up.

“Do we want to go pull those pranks now?” I was a bit hesitant to say anything since everyone seemed to hush when I walked in, but the twins stood up quickly and cheered excitedly for what was to come.

“Okay everyone, we can’t all travel as a big group because we will be sure to get caught, but stay in small groups and be as quiet as possible. Everyone needs to know the time because at midnight exactly, we’re starting our hide and seek. Ron and Ginny will be the seekers, so once you get found, either head back to your own common rooms, or head back here.” Fred was giving out the plan while everyone listened closely.

I was tired from it being so late and I was glad it was a Friday night. We’d all be walking zombies in the morning.

I got into a group with Cedric, Juliet, Easton and Harry. Cedric seemed to blush when I walked towards him for a group, but I ignored it. I didn’t know why he was acting...shy?

The twins were in a group with Hermione and Luna, and everyone else seemed to find groups. A few people even left early to head back to their common rooms for the night. I couldn’t blame them for being tired, it was already ten o’clock.

Cedric led the way since he knew where the other prefects would be to watch the corridors. We had that advantage aside from the other groups.

A thought flashed through my mind as I thought about what would happen to him if we got caught, and they saw Cedric who was a prefect, with us.

We stopped outside a door and after using his wand to unlock it, we stepped inside.

“Where’s the light?”

“It’s dark in here.”

“What was that?”

Easton, Harry and Juliet each asked separate questions which Cedric shushed.

He shut the door behind him and cast the lumos spell from his wand. Looking around, we saw it was the History of Magic classroom.

“Cedric, what are we doing here?” Harry asked.

“Binns has had the exact same schedule for the past few decades. He does the same thing everyday. But...if the room is different, then we can see if he gets a little less boring.” Cedric said while looking around the room.

“Cedric that’s lame. Binns never notices anything unless it’s a student actually showing interest in his class.” Easton spoke up through the darkness.

“Well do you have any better ideas?” Cedric sounded a bit irritated but cooled down when I placed my hand on his arm to get him to chill out.

“I think we should pull some pranks on Filch. I’d love to get back at him.” Easton argued back.

“Okay calm down. We have enough time to do both.” Easton stepped down from his tough guy act while Cedric seemed to be thankful for my commentary. “What’s the plan? Flip the tables upside down?” It was the first thought that came to my mind, but everyone seemed to agree.

We each took a section of desks to charm to float upside down in the air. Cedric took the front of the room to flip the chalkboards and teachers desk.

Once we finished, we left the room silently and relocked the door. Then we headed for Filches office.

Charming those desks took half an hour away, and left us with just over one hour left. Harry knew the way to Filches office since he had been dragged there before in second year. We had to stop a few different times from different noises we had heard, but it never ended up being a teacher or another prefect.

“Right here.” Harry said while peeking around the open door to be sure Filch wasn’t actually in there. When he found it empty, he ushered us through with his hand.

“Payback is sweet.” Easton sighed while looking around the room to start the first trap.

He first started with a gluing spell to keep everything fastened to the desk, including the pencils and papers, then moved on to spell the chair where it would break the moment someone sat on it.

I was a little lost on what to do so I started with conjuring cookies to rid the smell of the nasty fish and mold that occupied the room. Cedric then made the cookies have a sleeping draught in them and Juliet made a bouquet of flowers that would explode once they started to die. It would take a few days for that prank to kick in.

A few loud noises made us stop what we were doing and leave the room. We all hid behind a different doorway for a few minutes, not moving. Footsteps got louder which caused us to huddle closer together. Cedric had put his arm around me to pull me in closer to hide me more from revealing us on accident.

Harry peaked his head out from behind Easton and quickly pulled his body back into his hiding position.

“Snape and Flitwick just walked by.” Harry whispered it so quietly that I could barely hear it over Cedric’s heartbeat that was level with my ear.

After waiting for a few more minutes, we slowly started to move. Cedric looked down at his watch and informed us we had fifty minutes to find a place to hide.

“I know where I want to go.” Juliet had an idea that sounded like she was the only one that would be going to her hiding place. Easton nodded and split off from the group. Harry even seemed to have an idea of where to go.

“Uhm okay Juliet, you’re going on your own?” I whispered to her as Harry and Easton both walked alone, down separate halls.

“Yeah, I’ll see you back in the common room.” She winked at me and glanced up at Cedric before walking off.

“Okay I guess it’s just us.” I turned around to look up at Cedric.

“Okay, let’s go.” He whispered and turned back towards a dark hall.


End file.
